Twerking different for Bollywood, Miley?

The artiste once better known as Hannah Montana being upbraided by the Teddy Bear Fund in the US for her suggestive use of the iconic toy as a prop was not surprising, given her cult status among the tweenybopper devotees of such cuddly playthings. However, she is now Miley Cyrus again and clearly wants to shake off her kiddie image and look beyond the Disney age bracket.

Having a teddy bear on stage as she twerked during a video music awards event last Sunday was obviously part of the breakout strategy. More so as showbiz glory is often an endless (bump and) grind. The outrage her gyrations triggered was unexpected, though, as twerking has been around for a while in cultures around the world, and even in the US for a couple of decades.

It has, in fact, been there long enough for twerk - combining "twist" and "jerk", with an added silent oomph - to be included by the Oxford Dictionaries Online a day after Cyrus' performance, though not the venerable print version. Considering India has had its own variations of twerking, we may now regret not giving it a catchy name in time. Indeed, Cyrus' shocked US audience could benefit from viewing a few of Bollywood's famous sizzling "item" numbers, not to mention the signature moves of some leading Indian male actors, to realise the true unisex potential of twerking.