Puja Mukherjee was wide awake at 6.30am on February 23, when Star Movies' live telecast of the 81st Academy Awards began to roll. Like tens of thousands of Indians excited by the prospects of Slumdog Millionaire making a clean sweep - as it ultimately did, bagging eight Oscars - she had spent a sleepless night.
But the petite 20-year-old with large expressive eyes and silky hair is no ordinary film buff. She stands out for two reasons: Mukherjee herself has walked down the red carpet at Los Angeles' Kodak Theatre, venue of the Oscar awards ceremony; and she is a well-paid prostitute.
Mukherjee operates out of Sonagachi - Calcutta's notorious red-light area, in which an estimated 10,000 sex workers, from pre-pubescent girls to post-menopausal women, ply their trade. She entertains six to eight customers a day, earning about 10,000 rupees (HK$1,600). Besides providing sexual services, she performs dance numbers from Bollywood films in skimpy outfits or in the nude, depending on her clients' wishes. She has a husky voice mellowed by cigarettes and whisky; drinking and smoking with patrons is part of her job.
Mukherjee was pushed into prostitution within months of returning from Hollywood's biggest annual carnival, in 2005. Then 16, she was inside the Kodak Theatre in February of that year with Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, the American directors of Born into Brothels, which was to win an Oscar for best feature-length documentary. Basking in the Oscar glory with Mukherjee four years ago were the seven other children of Sonagachi prostitutes who featured in the 90-minute, 'drenched in realism' documentary.
After a fun-filled week in LA, which included an 'absolutely unforgettable' day at Disneyland, Mukherjee returned to Calcutta. Seven months later, soon after her 17th birthday, her mother forced her into prostitution.
She vividly remembers the afternoon when she was taken to a five-star hotel in the heart of the city and deflowered by a businessman in his 40s.
'My panties were sticky with blood oozing from my vagina, my breasts hurt, my lips were swollen as if stung by bees and I walked from the hotel suite to a taxi with great difficulty,' she recalls in an interview with Post Magazine. She had to receive medical treatment.