It’s enough to make any self-respecting pornographer cry out in distress. With spy cams available off the street in Delhi, anyone can produce an X-rated movie on a shoestring budget.

The ‘blue’ business has in fact become one of the biggest money spinners in urban India, thanks to recent technological advances and changing trends in the flesh trade.

Those involved with the adult entertainment industry in India say that unlike in the past when only a handful of people were making porn films, today every Tom, Dick and Harry has got into the act.

All aspiring filmmakers need to do is buy a micro remote video colour camera that is freely available in markets like Palika Bazar and costs between Rs 1200-1500. The camera runs on a nine-volt battery and transmits both audio and video signals. The receiving part of the device can be attached to a laptop that records whatever is transmitted.

A room is then booked in an economy hotel or a guesthouse. The rent is usually not more than Rs 1000 for the entire day. The wireless camera can then be hidden in whatever part of the room that offers best view of the steamy action that is soon to unfold.

Finding actors for the ’sexciting’ production is a breeze if someone knows where to look. With massage parlours advertising their services on the Net and in print, a good-looking young woman who will do just about anything for Rs 2000 or so, is only a phonecall away. Preferences for actress look-alikes are also catered to, but might cost extra.

A male participant poses even less of a problem. There’s no dearth of men willing to take up on an offer of free sex.

Once a deal is struck, the pimp arrives at the pre-designated spot with three or four of his ‘girls’ in tow. The one who is eventually selected accompanies a male friend of the producer to the room where the secret camera has already been set-up.

While the couple gets down and dirty, the filmmaker either sits in the hotel lobby or in his car parked outside and records the lovemaking session on his laptop.

Since neither the ‘hero’ nor the ‘heroine’ are aware they are being clandestinely shot, sources in the trade claim that such films have a natural feel to them and are therefore a great success on the underground circuit.

Amateur porn productions reportedly have a huge market in India and are lapped up almost immediately. There’s only one hitch - to avoid complications films are never sold in the city in which they are shot. For example, while a film made in the capital would be distributed internationally, it wouldn’t be ‘released’ in Delhi markets.

Blue films starring actress body doubles often go on to become box office ‘blockbusters’. After all, Mallika Sherawat’s incessant pleas that she is not the woman in a porn video clip currently doing the rounds, has done nothing to dampen its popularity!