How many Hindi heroines spout dialogues like "I am so horny!" on their wedding night? Or take off their vermilion veil and mouth raunchily, "I want to see you naked." In her debut film Khwahish, Mallika Sherawat says this and more to her onscreen husband Himanshu Malik. There is more to come: 17 French kisses, live crabs aimed at her breasts and a midnight trip to buy a condom.

In Deepak Tijori's Oops, to be released in June, models Kiran Janjani and Vikas Sethi play strippers who disrobe down to their leopard-print briefs amid a few thousand screaming girls. Smooches, a sex scene and an ice-cube trailing starlet Mink's belly button, a la Jism, up the titillating factor. The film's promo has been so popular that upmarket nightclubs in Mumbai have asked Janjani and Sethi to perform for special nights.

Footpath: Four friends, their lives, loves and hetrayals, Also, Shivdasani and Basu in a long, hot smooch.

Item songs have already pushed the envelope when it comes to stripping to succeed. The mainstream acceptability of an Ishaa Koppikar or a Malaika Arora has shattered the taboo that good girls never have fun. With Pooja Bhatt's Rs 4-crore Jism making a tidy Rs 2-crore profit earlier this year, Bipasha Basu has rewritten the rules of the sexual revolution on screen. At a time when Bollywood is desperate for a hit, a lot of skin and some sex have become the new mantra. So Basu is happy to keep her dare-bare image alive in Mukesh Bhatt's Rs 5-crore Footpath, which will hit the screens in May. She has a long smooch scene in it with Aftab Shivdasani-ask Bhatt about it and he laughs: "Anything that has Bipasha in it has to be a sexy film.''

Other actors are following in her high-heeled footsteps. In Inteqaam, Pankaj Parashar's take-off on Basic Instinct, slated for a year-end release, the debate still rages on whether Koppikar will uncross her legs like Sharon Stone did. That is not all. In a raunchy item number in Mani Shankar's thriller Rudraksh, Sanjay Dutt massages Koppikar's lissome shoulders. She doesn't object.

Sex as a subject has always been popular, but usually in morning-show films and in smaller towns. For the first time, though, it has come to the mainstream. Partly it is the Jism effect. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh cites how Jism drew a lot of women and college students. "Filmmakers have realised that to get the audience they have to make sure the sensuality is not vulgar," he says. The other reason is a new breed of filmmakers and newcomers, who don't need a rose bush to hide behind. Rudraksh director Mani Shankar says it is because "people have become more accepting of our onscreen characters as sexual beings".

FRESH LIME: An English film about a man, his Casanova son and three foreign models with a lot of skin

While Shankar says no erotic promos will be needed to get people to watch his film, publicity for most of these films highlights the "hot" aspect. The Rs 2.5-crore Oops has an open zipper with a belly button peeking out, while Fresh Lime, which cost Rs 2.5 crore, features Chunkey Pandey holding red lingerie in one hand and a cigar in the other. Says graphic designer Simrit Brar who created provocative posters and brochures for Khwahish: "If the posters are sensational, most people will stop and look at them. It is essential for a small film." Brar should know, especially after her work in Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai (a rip-off of American Pie) inspired many such posters with fresh colours and lots of skin.

Tijori says he was ready to face the consequences of making a film on such a bold and unconventional concept. "But Jism saved me. I didn't have to be apologetic anymore." The idea, says Tijori, was to have his film watched by a family without any uncomfortable moments. He even managed to get an A certificate without any cuts. "It has been shot the way I would like to see any film-with skin, song and a story," says Tijori.

Parashar, however, is unhappy with the "sex film" tag Inteqaam has acquired. "Though it doesn't have a sex scene, it has an erotic number and a few sensuous scenes," he says. "But as it has been classified as a hot film, buyers are willing to shell out the moolah." Likewise, the over Rs 2-crore Khwahish-tagged by exhibitors and distributors as Jism Part II-has been sold in 10 of the 15 major territories a month before it hits theatres. The saucy posters of Fresh Lime in trade guides have already helped distributors sell the film abroad.

KHWAHISH: An urban couple, 17 smooches and a whole lot of sex-speak

For directors too, it is a great way to get noticed. Govind Menon says he sees this as the only way for a new director to attract attention, adding, "If you show a married couple, isn't it normal for them to kiss before they leave home?" Nikhil Mathur, the producer of Fresh Lime, even claims getting market research done among college students and the younger multiplex audience to justify skin display. "People are looking for fun, not for films that result in headaches."

Many filmmakers also rubbish being in the league of Jism, saying their films are as different from it as Hum Aapke Hain Koun! is from Sholay. "The Jism promos were just a way to fool the public. There was nothing in the film," says Mathur. "My film will deliver what you see in the trailers." The actors, meanwhile, have known what they were getting into. Sherawat has already extracted her pound of publicity. The buxom actor has declined from calling the kisses "the requirement of the film", but has already changed her phone number twice as the industry has come calling. Janjani, 29, has been flooded with offers from socialites to perform for them. So far, he hasn't succumbed. "If Jism made John Abraham, a Catholic, a hero and acceptable, I don't see why Oops can't do the same for me."

For now, sex is out in the open. Jingling registers, launching careers and even making the mercury rise.