Savita Bhabhi
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Contents |
Sources
i) in.com
ii) Savita Bhabhi movie released with English subtitles
Vinita Chaturvedi, TNN | Oct 16, 2013
iii) 'Savita Bhabhi Movie' goes to Hollywood, set to enter the film festival circuit
IBN December 11, 2013
iv) Comic Sutra An animated porn star is changing Indian views on female sexual liberation
v) Is Savita Bhabhi Gujarati?
TNN | Feb 21, 2014
Who is Savita Bhabhi?
Savita Bhabhi is the heroine of an eponymous pornographic web comic — commissioned, created and published by a non-resident Indian. Her comics chronicle the sexual adventures of a Gujarati bhabhi (sister-in-law) named Savita Patel.
Kirtu, India's first cartoon porn website, featuring explicit depictions of the sexual adventures of a housewife named Savita, has been subject to official censoprship in India. In.com writes: Initially the creator of the site chose to remain anonymous, going under the assumed collective name Indian Porn Empire. However in July 2009, Puneet Agarwal , the creator of the site revealed his identity
Her character is a tarty young housewife whose extramarital dalliances are nothing short of hardcore, with the same money shots and stock language you’d see in classic porn. But, Diane Mehta points out, what’s different, for a country as patriarchal as India, is that Savi always calls the shots.
The character initially appeared in a freely available comic strip at savitabhabhi.com in March 2008 and quickly soared to become one of the top sites in India with several million viewers a month (two million a month according to Diane Mehta; others claim fifteen).
Kirtu, India's first cartoon porn website, featuring explicit depictions of the sexual adventures of a housewife named Savita, was, in 2009, subject to official censorship in India. In.com writes: Initially the creator of the site chose to remain anonymous, going under the assumed collective name Indian Porn Empire. However in July 2009, the creator of the site, a UK businessman called Puneet Agrawal and also known as Deshmukh, revealed his identity
Diane Mehta’s analysis
Savi, with her long hair and voluptuous body, invokes the sensual female protagonists of the ACK [Amar Chitra Katha] series [of comic-book versions of the Indian classics as well as religious epics] —but with a sly, modern spin. “Arousing sexual excitement and moral anxiety with equal ease, Savita Bhabi straddles both continuity and change,” said Shohini Ghosh, professor of media at Jamia Millia University in New Delhi. [ACK’s voluptuous women, like Barbie, have figures disproportionate to real female figures.]
As a role model, Savi isn’t the best judge of character—she entices teens, a bra salesman, and a terrorist—but she’s bossy, playful, provocative, and she gets what she wants. She has an orgy with three of her husband’s poker buddies just because she finds it sexy. But she is a self-possessed woman.
Deshmukh told [Diane Mehta] he set out to show that sex is a two-way street, as well as to push society toward greater openness about female sexuality.”
A 2012 India Today sex poll of married couples with children suggests a more sexually progressive society compared to earlier surveys. But if you break down the numbers, it’s clear that women aren’t speaking up. In the survey, only 17 percent of women claimed to masturbate, 41 percent watch porn, 26 percent indulge in oral sex, 6 percent are voyeuristic, and 9 percent role-play. (The masturbation stat alone is suspicious: 71 percent of men masturbate, but only 17 percent of women have tried it? If 41 percent watch porn, is the figure still only 17 percent?) By that unlikely standard, Savita Bhabhi indulges herself in all kinds of things Indian women don’t: she enjoys orgies, she’s voyeuristic, she loves role-play.
Of course, there is a danger of confusing the world of representation with that of lived experience. While Savi certainly inverts the traditional, sensual female ACK protagonists with her coyly demanding sexpot stance, the gap between actual Indian women and the media’s portrayal of them is vast. In a country that puts such a high premium on tradition and marriage, sexually liberated, independent women are still looked at askance.
Animated film version
In an attempt to broaden the scope and appeal of the first "Savita Bhabhi Movie", in 2013 Kirtu launched a version of the movie with English subtitles This was in response to the requests made by non-Hindi speaking Savita Bhabhi fans.
Deshmukh, the founder of Kirtu also mentioned that there were plans to dub the movie in both English and Tamil to further broaden its fan base. The original SavitaBhabhi.com website was among the first Indian websites to be launched simultaneously in multiple Indian languages.
The English version of the movie was made especially for the overseas market and non-Hindi speaking audience. The movie has been dubbed by professional voice artists of Indian origin rather than American actors to maintain an authentic feel to the characters.
'Savita Bhabhi Movie' was the first ever adult Indian movie marketed in Hollywood and was premiered on 4th May 2013.
A Gujarati identity?
The takeover of television by the great Gujarati joint family may have inspired India's first comic porn star — Savita Bhabhi, says a research paper by a Jawaharlal Nehru University graduate. The character, Savita Patel, may have been derived from the Gujarati lifestyle, household and enterprising qualities.
The paper titled 'Rethinking Gujarati Identity through the Image of Savita Bhabhi' intends to look at the inception, ideation, production and patronage of Savita Bhabhi
The paper by Anannya Bohidar juxtaposes Savita Bhabhi with other cultural products of contemporary times and tries to conceptualize the multifaceted image of the porn comic with various other popular media — be it daily soaps, weekend comedy or films — which have projected the Gujarati identity in many forms.
"The paper discusses and analyzes the reasons behind the ideation of a married Gujarati bhabhi in the realm of popular culture. For instance, in most of the 'saas-bahu' sagas the wives so involved with their families that their husbands feel neglected, leading to extra-marital affairs. The comic also derives other aspects like the enjoyment and the lifestyle of Gujaratis," Bohidar said at the fifth biennial conference on '(Re) Defining Gujarati Identity' organized by Gujarat Studies Association in Ahmedabad. Relating the character of Savita's husband to the traits of Gujarati men, the paper says that there are a lot of similarities between the two — such as the issue of male migration, and the enterprising spirit that takes men to different countries, but leaves less time for the spouse.
For the research, Bohidar studied ancient texts, modern writings on popular art, the Kama Sutra and newspapers.
"While Savita Bhabhi derives inspiration from Kama Sutra, she is not the quintessential woman who lets the man decide everything. She is critiquing the patriarchal society," said Bohidar.
The comic was introduced in 2008 and was banned by the Indian government in 2009. "The major argument will be pertaining to the issues of history, transformation, recovery and the production of identities in relation to Savita Bhabhi in Gujarat," says the paper.
