Bollywood's hot item numbers up

Item numbers were the forte of the queens of oomph, Helen and Aruna Irani.

Now, there are a new breed of girls like Malaika Arora-Khan, Yana Gupta and Koena Mitra, who don't need to be vamps to gyrate to hot item numbers.

Always an integral part of Bollywood, today almost every actress is doing it.

Regardless of the films' fate at the box office, the song usually becomes a rage with the audience. Sushmita Sen's Dilbar created a flutter though the film (Sirf Tum) sank into oblivion. Likewise, Yana Gupta shot to fame with Babuji in the Vivek Oberoi starrer Dum.

So be it Shilpa Shetty's Main Aai Hoon UP Bihar Lootne (Shool), Urmila Matondkar's Chamma Chamma (China Gate), Bipasha Basu's Beedi (Omkara), Aishwarya Rai's Kajra re (Bunty Aur Babli) or more recently Mallika Sherawat's Mehbooba (Aap Ka Surroor), item songs are here to stay.