Move over Poonam Pandey offering to strip for the Indian cricket team, the latest to join the stripper bandwagon is item girl Liza Malik. The model's nude photoshoot for PeTA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) has angered the women's NGO Nari Samman Sangathan.The picture was for PeTA's campaign against the use of leather balls in cricket, in which Malik is posing in the buff behind a ball cutout. However, the NGO believes the photo is publicity stunt.
Liza Malik "How can the lady protect animal rights by posing nude? If you want to contribute to a noble cause, you can do that by extending financial help, but, in Liza's case, it looks fishy since a lot of aspiring models work with established NGOs like PeTA simply to propagate nudity and garner cheap publicity," said NGO president Sundari Thakur.
"Some item girls and models are taking nudity under the garb of such NGOs and are promoting themselves in the wrong way," she added.
However, Malik seems unfazed.
"I think it is an international way of propagating the interest of animal rights. Pamela Anderson posed for PeTA in the buff as well and, in my case, if I would have worn a sari and fought against the use of animal skin, no one would have noticed it. Since this issue has sparked a debate on the poster simultaneously, the purpose of getting the cause noticed has been served," Malik told the tabloid.
Liza Malik is not new to controversy. The model had earlier been in the news when she claimed she was getting calls to fix IPL matches. Interestingly, the advertisement takes a dig on this very controversy as the line on the ball cutout says, 'The best way to fix cricket is to stop using a cricket ball.'
In her defence, Malik says, "People should stop mudslinging and join hands with PeTA in me in barring ICC and BCCI from using leather balls used for cricketing purpose. I am an animal lover and I am willing to go out of the way and do anything to protect animals."
This makes Liza the second Malik (following Veena Malik) to have found herself in the midst of cricket controversies. So, will her career skyrocket like her predecessor as well? Guess we'll just have to wait and watch.