What’s pornography doing at a lit fest?
Pornography gives a peep into our intimate lives in a way that nothing else can: it is a sociologist’s wet dream.
How did your interest in the subject begin?
It began when I read Srilal Shukla’s Raag Darbari, with his characters reading porn. I wanted to study neglected literature that tells us about changes in our realities.
As an anthropologist, what does our porn say about us?
It tells us about the changing nature of our fantasies and transgressions.
Do you get a lot of nudge-nudge, wink-wink for your work?
I was embarrassed, especially when I went to sex clinics and pavements in search of material.
Is there a popular figure in Indian porn?
The woman is often a whisky-drinking, cigarette-smoking, pillion rider with legs astride who loves to eat omelettes—an object of both desire and anxiety.
Omelettes! Why omelettes?
Omelettes have been a sign of luxury and westernisation—a forbidden combination.
Why does popular porn depict either a blonde or westernised Indian woman?
I call it the Helen complex—our “bad” desires are projected on western women whereas the wife is always “Indian”.
Is there a difference between rich and poor people’s porn?
Poor people’s eroticism is about modernity while rich people’s fantasies play out in various places like call centres and airport lounges.
And is there a difference between Indian and western porn?
Our porn is “family-oriented”: its themes are sex with kin—for instance, the bhabhi complex.
With literature getting more sexually explicit, will there be place for porn?
Pornography will always have a place because an important aspect of desire is the forbidden.
