New Delhi, April 4, (IANS): She may or may not get to strip for the Men in Blue, but young model Poonam Pandey has sure got a lot of media attention as well as lucrative offers from international magazines that want her to pose naked.
The aspiring actress, who has grabbed headlines for stating that she will bare all if Team India wins the World Cup, has been flooded with offers from foreign glossies. But she has rejected them saying she will strip only for the Indian team.
"So far she is flooded with many offers from India and world wide. Right from Indian reality shows to international magazines. More than that, she got a huge half million dollar offer from an international magazine to pose nude for their cover, but she rejected it as the act to go nude was only meant for team India to get home the World Cup and not to make fame and money. She is on cloud nine as India won the cup," said Poonam's manager Vipin M.
The 19-year-old was one of the top eight contestants of Gladrags' model hunt contest last year.
According to Vipin, the model has been getting threatening calls from moral police and she is avoiding taking calls or talking to anybody in person unless she gets an approval from BCCI.
Poonam made her controversial offer on Twitter just before the semifinal in Mohali. But later she made a statement saying she would only do so if BCCI permits. On Friday she sent an official letter to the board, saying going naked for the team would have a "therapeutic" effect on Team India and help them win.
In the letter, she wrote: "..I want India to win the Cricket World Cup 2011 and am willing to go the extra mile to do anything so that India wins the World Cup. I am ready and willing at any place and time of the Indian teams choosing to go in the nude to boost their sporting spirit to perform better.
She also cited "many studies conducted by various universities abroad which confirms and infers that such performances/expectations boost and inspire people to perform better in any field, be it sports or otherwise. Even medical books on psychology and psychiatry confirms this".
The model made a "humble request" to be allowed to "perform in the privacy of the Indian cricket team's dressing room or any other place of your choosing". She suggested "a foreign land like Paris in France, so that the Laws of India - if a hindrance, shall not apply".
It would act like a "private therapeutic performance with a psychologist's presence" and "cannot be an offence under any law for the time being in force if the team members have no objection and the BCCI gives the go ahead".