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ABSTRACT
While India is no stranger to titillating imagery, its pornographic circuits remain underground due to stringent laws. The emergence of Indian pornographic comics under the aegis of the adult entertainment company Indian Porn Empire has destabilized this framework through their dispersed production practices and viral circulation. This article examines two of the most popular comic book titles, Savita Bhabhi and Velamma, that feature married women as their protagonists. While interrogating these comics in terms of their content and effects, we suggest that the affordances of the comic book medium allow them to display a wider range of fantasies than both the amateur and soft porn that circulates in India. Thus, these comic books become sticky objects that absorb and express the dynamics of class, gender and taboo. The adult comic book visualizes sexual and moral anxieties on the two-dimensional plane of the comic book panel and becomes a canvas of fantasies that allows for vicarious boundary-crossing.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 We would like to thank N. Trace Cabot for allowing us to refer to our casual conversation on the topic.
2 While we use the term ‘comic book’ throughout the article, we are aware that the term is a bit of a misnomer. These comics exist as digital files that are not physically printed books. So, the term comic book is meant to point towards a certain arrangement of text and images that replicates the structure of the printed comic book without sharing its materiality.
3 We use the term non-space here to denote the impossibility of locating cyberspace as geographical space. Although the internet can be regulated through techniques such as geo-blocking, this is not the same as marking out boundaries on a map or fencing around a house. For instance, when websites hosted by servers in one location are accessed in another, the ‘site’ becomes a two-way mirror that connects the space of the user to the space of the server. Although disrupting the server would disrupt access in the other location, at the moment of access the website becomes a fluid space that allows interaction between the user and the server.
4 The Indian Information Technology (Amendment Act) came into force in 2008. While the ‘Information Technology Act 2000’ (Citation2000) had only one provision – clause 67 pertaining to the ‘Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form’ – the ‘Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008’ (Citation2016) expanded upon it by including two separate clauses – 67A and 67B. While 67A was a separate clause for ‘publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form’ (the 2000 Act had no separate clause), 67B dealt with ‘material depicting children in sexually explicit act, etc. in electronic form’. Section 67 warrants punishment of five-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs.10 Lakhs (US$1573 approximately) for publishing any electronic material that contains sexually explicit acts. Section 69 A (1) bestows the Controller of Certifying Authorities, with the power to intercept, monitor and decrypt material transmitted, received or stored in the interest of nation’s sovereignty and public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of cognizable offence.
5 ‘The Dissident Pleasures of Pornography’ is the title of Gosh’s reprinted article in Himal South Asian. The original article was titled ‘The Pleasures and Politics of Pornography’ and was published in Himal Southasian, September 2009.
6 We must mention here that the representational politics of Savita Bhabhi and Velamma are slightly different, as Velamma’s illustrations are reminiscent of the buxom figures of Malayalam soft-porn stars such as Shakeela.
7 For the full list of instructions, see ‘Artist Submission’. See also ‘Author Submission’ in the ‘Submissions’ section on the Kirtu website. Accessed 12 November 2017. https://www.kirtu.com/submissions/
8 Patel is a prominent Gujarati surname.
9 The character description for Savita Bhabhi and the other characters can be found on the official website for the film. Accessed 29 November 2017. http://www.savitabhabhimovie.com/category/characters/
10 See the homepage for the Kirtu website. Accessed 10 October 2017. https://www.kirtu.com/
11 Like the Savita Bhabhi message, this welcome message also appears on the homepage for Velamma comics. Accessed 10 October 2017. https://www.velamma.com/
12 See ‘Writer Submission’ (Citationn.d.) on the Kirtu website for more details. Accessed 12 November 2017. https://www.kirtu.com/writers-submission/
13 This is ironic if one considers that one of the final instructions given to potential authors on the Kirtu website forbids the submission of ‘stories containing celebrities or characters and settings’ that the writers do not themselves have proprietary rights over. Accessed 12 November 2017. https://www.kirtu.com/writers-submission/
14 Accessed 10 December 2017. https://www.kirtu.com/all-kirtu-series/
15 See endnote 4.
16 The original website for the Save Savita campaign is no longer accessible. Archived webpages can be accessed via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Accessed 2 January 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20090627223958/http://www.savesavita.com:80/
17 The original press release can be found archived on a webpage snapshot by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, where Deshmukh writes: ‘Unfortunately, due to personal and family issues arising from my going public last week, I am forced to take this decision. I will be taking down all links and posts subsequent to releasing this statement. I apologize for any inconvenience caused to bloggers/tweeters that are linking to the content on the Save Savita website’ (Deshmukh Citation2009).
18 Savita Movie (Citation2013). Accessed 16 December 2017. https://vine.co/v/bPWBUiUHmtu/.
19 The complete article can be accessed on the website for the Savita Bhabhi movie in a section titled ‘Why We Made the Movie?’ (Deshmukh Citation2016). The article also mentions 6 December 2017 as the exact date when the idea for the Savita Bhabhi comics emerged. Accessed 8 November 2017. http://www.savitabhabhimovie.com/the-story/why-we-made-the-movie/
20 The idea for the episode ‘Savita in Shimla’ was contributed by a guest author, Sumit Kumar. Kumar is a comic book author who later came to prominence with his autobiographical work An Itch You Can’t Scratch (2011). Although uncredited in the episode, he started his writing with Savita Bhabhi. The idea that he pitched about Savita Bhabhi in Afghanistan trying to lure Osama bin Laden on behalf of America was fine-tuned to Savita’s attempt to nab a dacoit (Biswas Citation2016).
21 The original dialogues are in Hindi, but these are the words used in the English subtitles for the film. When Hari explains how his virtual reality simulator works, he tells Suraj: ‘You can be the hero of your favorite movie […] The possibilities are endless.’
22 The exact lines we refer to are in Hindi. The original lines are: ‘Aise in halaat mein, Majboori ke saath mein, Best to go online … Leke apne haath mein.’ Full lyrics can be found on Shor Bazaar’s website. The Doc (Citation2009). Accessed 21 December 2017. http://bazaarshor.blogspot.com/2009/07/savita-bhabhi-lyrics.html
23 For instance, the storylines of many Malayalam soft-porn films feature an ‘aunty’ protagonist and when clips from earlier Malayalam soft-porn films find their way into the internet they are often tagged as ‘Mallu Aunty Films’. Thus, the imagination of the sexually experienced and mature ‘aunty’ is an integral feature of India’s pornoscape.
24 Accessed 29 November 2017. http://www.savitabhabhimovie.com/category/characters/
25 This description appears on the homepage for the Velammabhabhi website. ‘VELAMMA BHABHI’ (Citationn.d.). Accessed 3 January 2018. http://velammabhabhi.com/
26 The description appears on the homepage for MySexySavita. Accessed 3 January 2018. http://mysexysavita.com/
27 See the ‘About Us’ page on the Yellowplum website. Accessed 3 January 2018. http://www.yellowplum.org/aboutus.html