GoW writer to make directorial debut

8 Apr 2013

Gangs of Wasseypur writer Akhilesh Jaiswal is all set to make his directorial debut with film Mastram. The film is a story of a reluctant pornographic writer who actually aspired to be a litterateur.

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 the film. Says Akhilesh, "Like all boys I also read Mastram's books. I always used to wonder who this guy was. When I was visiting the smaller towns of North India for my research on GOW, I came across his books again. I discovered he still has a huge fan-following. That's when I decided to make a film on Mastram's life. No one knows if this man exists. I've made a fictional biography."

Rahul Bagga, who played Kunal Kapoor's brother in Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana, plays the lead role. He says, "I am from North India. Naturally I grew up on a staple diet of Mastram's books. 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."

Rahul asserts there's nothing sleazy about the film about the porn king. "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."

Adds Akhilesh, "Since no one has seen Mastram, we've visualized him as a literate humorous author who is forced by circumstances into penning pornography."