Wild, wanton and acquisitive, all she wants is a good time.

"I just want to sleep with you," Priyanka croons into Akshay Kumar's burning ears. Sex-at-the-workplace comes tumbling out of the closet in Abbas-Mustan's "Aitraaz".

The film is a first for everyone involved in it, including producer Subhash Ghai whose films from "Karz" to "Pardes" were usually "sex-free", with characters staying primly out of bed.

But will the audience enjoy watching Ghai and his mainstream crew getting steamy on screen, when they can watch Dilip Kumar courting Madhubala with poetry, songs and coy glances in "Mughal-e-Azam"?

Even Ram Gopal Varma, who loves to push the envelope, becomes shockingly shy when it comes to sex. He admits "Vastu Shastra" is the first of his films to have a prolonged lovemaking sequence (between Peeya Rai Chowdhury and Purab Kohli).

"I haven't really thought about it. But now that you mention it, I guess I am quite shy about lovemaking scenes," Varma confessed.

Unlike Varma's "Rangeela", which had some raunchy dance numbers but no sex, his new film "Naach" has a scene of kissing between Abhishek Bachchan and Antara Mali.

Even Anil Kapoor, known for his conservative approach to courtship, has shared a passionate on-screen kiss with Sameera Reddy in Sanjay Gupta's "Musafir", where the heroine indulges in multiple relationships. Draupadi undraped!

With conservative movie moguls and actors willing to blow the lid off sexual inhibitions, could sex, so far a pssst-pssst, sleazy-cheesy matter in Hindi films, finally acquire mainstream legitimacy?

The "Hot Babe" syndrome seems to be catching on. Even female directors are beginning to take a long hard look at what Tolstoy once described as "the greatest human tragedy" that which transpires between a couple in the bedroom.

Television director Vinta Nanda progresses to the large screen with the remarkably unabashed "White Noise", a film about sex, sleaze and other negotiable commodities in the television industry.

The film's protagonist is more sexually motivated, more in command of her sexual desires and more capable of exercising her will than the run-of-the-mill heroine.

Mira Nair's adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's novel, "The Namesake", will contain "discreet" lovemaking sequences featuring some top Bollywood names.

It is a peculiar phenomenon. While some mainstream filmmakers are planning innocent love stories (only love, no sex, a la Raj Kapoor's "Bobby"), others intend to pull out all the stops.

What is more, mainstream actors are willing to walk that extra mile...into the bedroom.