India's biggest Porn writer, Mastram, now on big screen

Every adolescent and post-adolescent young male in North India has at one time or the other savoured the pornographic literature of Mastram, a pseudonym for India’s most successful Hindi porn writer who is now the subject of a film directed by Akhilesh Jaiswal. Entitled Mastram, the film pieces together the life of a reluctant pornographic writer who actually aspired to be a litterateur. Rahul Bagga who was seen playing Kunal Kapoor’s brother in Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana plays the mythical porn writer. Apparently the film would have a voiceover reading out the most lurid porn passages from Mastram’s literature. Director Akhilesh Mishra who also wrote Gangs Of Wasseypur says Mastram fascinated him more as a metaphor than a writer of porn fiction. “I am from Bhopal. And like all boys I discovered sex in Mastram’s books. I always used to wonder who this guy must be. When I was visiting the smaller towns of North India for my research on Gangs Of Wasseypur I came across the books of Mastram again. I discovered he had a huge fan-following even now in this day and age of free porn on the internet, all across North India.” That’s when Jaiswal decided to make a film on Mastram’s life and libido. “No one knows if this man exists. I’ve made a fictional biography.” Rahul Bagga who plays Mastram admits he was flummoxed as to how to play this enigmatic wet-dream merchant. “I am from North India. Naturally I grew up on a staple diet of Mastram’s porn. Nowadays of course you get visual porn on the net. The written variety of porn has lost its edge. But now I find a lot of youngsters in North are re-discovering the joys of pornographic literature. Besides Mastram there’s also Savita Bhabhi.” Rahul Bagga says he and his director were sure they didn’t want to play Mastram as a purveyor of sleaze. “If you’ve read Mastram’s novels the detailing and the descriptive passages of the environment where the sexual act happens is far more vivid and enjoyable than the sexual content. He describes the sultry afternoon of the sexual act with far more passion than the act itself. When I was doing theatre in Delhi my colleagues and I read reams of Mastram to liberate ourselves from sexual inhibitions. “ Bagga asserts there’s nothing sleazy about the film about the porn king. “We’ve kept the film in the authentic ambience. I’ve played Mastram as a guy with literary aspirations who wants to be Premchand but ends up being the lord of the lurid. But he never stops being a litterateur at heart.” Bagga who is currently shooting a rom-com entitled Teri Meri Tedhi Medhi in Delhi says the film shows sexual fantasy to be a healthy impulse. “Everyone nurtures secret sexual fantasies, mostly to do with the forbidden. Who has not ogled at a sexy teacher in class or a neighbourhood aunty who wears her blouse too low? Since no one has seen Mastram we’ve visualizsed him as a literate humorous author who is forced by circumstances into penning pornography.” Adds the director Akhilesh Jaiswal, “During my research on Mastram I discovered that no one had ever seen the author. So he is a metaphor for those stolen moments of sexual pleasure that we all hanker for in our growing years.” Jaiswal hopes that after the release of the film someone would finally come forward to reveal himself as Mastram. “That would be the ultimate collective orgasm,” says the director.