Con l'eccezione del citatissimo Kanti Shah, poco o nulla trapela della produzione softcore indiana, sia cinematografica che editoriale. Ultimamente, però, l'argomento - piuttosto in voga negli anni ottanta - ha stuzzicato l'interesse di alcuni registi (v. The dirty picture e Miss Lovely). È ora la volta di Mastram, diretto dall'esordiente Akhilesh Jaiswal, già sceneggiatore di Gangs of Wasseypur. La pellicola è la biografia fittizia di Mastram, scrittore di culto di narrativa softcore in lingua hindi. In realtà pare che Mastram non sia mai esistito, o meglio, che dietro questo pseudonimo si celassero diversi autori sconosciuti. Trailer.
Vi segnalo l'articolo The Mastram effect: Erotica comes of age in Indian cinema, di Urmimala Banerjee, pubblicato da Mid-Day il 2 marzo 2014:
'Out in the open Akhilesh Jaiswal (...) says, “Like many young North Indian men, I too grew up reading Mastram’s books. I used to wonder how this guy would be like and what would he be telling people about his profession. It was just a thought that later formed the base for my film. We did a lot of research but could not find any links to the ‘actual’ Mastram. Most of the old bookstalls that sold his stuff had shut shop or the owners had died, so I could not establish any contact.” Working on a film based on the life of a porn writer would not have appealed to many Bollywood heroes but Jaiswal says that the initial reaction wasn’t that negative either. “I did not approach any big star but 90 per cent of those I asked were kicked about the script. When Nawaz (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) heard it, he loved it and so did Rajkummar Rao. Unfortunately, they could not be a part of the film due to other commitments”.'
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