HYDERABAD: It is sunny out there, both weather-wise and otherwise, ever since Bollywood director Ramgopal Verma, known for being controversial both in his movies and outside of it, just created a storm in the drawing room. While RGV, as he is better known to his fans and detractors alike, has always been known for his maverick, rebellious and candid stance on various issues, his debut short film titled ‘Meri Beti SUNNY LEONE Banna Chaahti Hai’ which released on June 2 shook up many Indian digital viewers.
For those who came in late, the 12-minute short film released on YouTube is a daring drawing room conversation between a young daughter and her parents on her wanting to become a porn star as a career choice. It sounds far-fetched even as a mere conversation even in Sunny Leone’s family perhaps, but the entire 12 minutes is a logically thrashed out debate where anxious parents and ambitious daughter emotionally get charged up with FAQs on the rationale, career prospects, values and more.
The film starts off with quotes by George Washington, Ayn Rand and Upanishads (but surprisingly, we have never read them anywhere else before). What is worse is that it hits directly on the institution of marriage, commitment and morality. About 1.2 million views later as on June 5, the aftermath of this earthquake is still on with many justifications, explanations and the usual severe disapproval on RGV’s deemed disrespect towards society in general and women in particular.
Having known RGV as an interviewer on several occasions including a series called Ramuism that throws light on his thoughts and philosophies, I am compelled to question his intention behind this. He was always in favour of shaking up existing systems and uprooting societal beliefs and this was a stretch, I felt. As a culture, we are not even ready to accept that victims of rape are not at fault.
So how can we even speak out the words such as ‘porn’ or ‘Sunny Leone’ in public? He justifies the same on grounds of empowerment and freedom of choice for women, something he has always advocated in the name of liberating the so-called ‘weaker sex’.
“If a singer can sell her voice, if an actor can be seen and get paid, if someone can write IIT-JEE and become an engineer, why cannot a girl capitalise on her assets called ‘sexuality’ and ‘beauty’?" is his argument through the girl’s dialogues. Many engineers, singers and actors will probably be unhappy if compared to a porn star. Personally, as a woman, I myself resent the idea of being identified as a sexual object and hence found the parallels a bit far-fetched.
“Commodification of any woman’s body – be it a porn film or any other film is something not acceptable at all,” says activist and a fiercely independent Devi, who has spoken her mind out on several occasions. “Besides, the porn industry where people are exploited is not an accepted norm or profession that one can argue their way through,” she elaborates.
The bigger concern is the fact that we know of young college girls who have been caught in sex rackets and other similar situations and hence a film advocating something like this can clearly mislead and misguide youngsters, says Ravi, an entrepreneur and father of two girls.
What about a boy saying he wants to become a porn star? Well, let us face facts. Clearly, in our strong patriarchal society, this would be discussed, but not as shocking. This is a society where we can tolerate men watching porn, but never our daughters going out late at night. That is a different topic altogether, but society never functions in isolation. Arguments cannot be heard out of context. That is why we have systems and acceptable guidelines.
“Many many decades ago men consciously, for social reasons or subconsciously assumed upon themselves to culturally change the fundamental validity of their sexual code – family, monogamy, continence, the postulate of privacy and restriction of intercourse to the acceptable norm of various societies.
As part of programming the society, men have actually restricted women with guilt in the context of sexuality and her body”, says RGV. Well, RGV Sir, are you trying to liberate women of their guilt or are you trying to tame chauvinistic men who are dominating the scene and your most loved objects- women? I said objects only because many including me wonder how many weak women dying to get liberated ran to RGV asking for help.
Does this imply that he too is actually objectifying a woman’s body in the name of validating her supreme strength called sexuality? In the country’s famous TV anchor Arnab Goswami’s words, and with due respect – the nation wants to know what Mr RGV was trying to accomplish. Could he have made more films on beti padhao for equality of education before he attacked a sensitive issue like this?
These are some questions my friends have been asking. But then why did 1.2 million people watch it? Firstly, because it is sensational. Secondly, we must acknowledge that we are not beyond hypocrisy and double-standards and the title itself can make people sit up in shock.
There are concerned netizens debating away on the merits and demerits of this film and while it is democratic to speak our hearts out- we are light years away from acknowledging the porn industry as a mainstream profession. The only comment I have for all those who reacted fiercely against this – please do not disapprove this attempt using references of women close to RGV! After all, you claim to respect women so show it in your deeds. What is next? “Main drug peddler banna chahtha hoon??”
(The writer is a city-based television journalist, radio jockey and professional singer who has interviewed RGV on multiple occasions for a telly series called Ramuism)