Vikram Bhatt On His New Web Series Maaya About  BDSM

What prompted you to do a series on BDSM?

I was writing a book on this at first. Wrote a couple of chapters as well but then I realized that it needed a visual medium. Its not as much about Bdsm as it is about the Internet and the anonymity that it gives. You give yourself a username and suddenly you are free of being yourself. You can be who you want and in that you end up becoming more yourself than you ever were. Maaya is about that irony. To be your true self you need to be anonymous

Do you think sexually deviant behaviour is now an integral part of our social structure?
 I don’t really have an answer to that. I know that the millennials have made it more acceptable but there I’ll always be the ones who will judge. I believe that whatever is safe, sane and consensual between two adults in the privacy of their bedrooms is not deviant.

Why did you do a web series on BDSM? Why not a feature film?
There are many reasons for that. Firstly Maaya works best in Hinglish. It cannot be tailor made to any one particular kind of audience that films tend to do now. By that I mean the single and multiplex division. Also Maaya would have never gotten past the censors and in this the censors would have been right because I think Maaya is a more a private watch than a collective movie going experience. I also believe that in groups people are pretentious. In private they watch everything that appeals to their primordial. Once again a case of all of us being two people.

Is Maaya inspired by 50 Shades Of Grey?
No. It’s not. Unfortunately anything that is Bdsm is Fifty shades of grey. And I see no point in fighting that perception. It’s like saying Dangal is Sultan cause they are about wrestling.

Why  did you select Shama Sikandar to play the lead?

I needed someone who more than willing to surrender to the script was willing to understand the realm that is Bdsm. It’s complex. It’s not just tying and whipping. It’s about surrender and control. She understood what I was saying. To be someone who had kept her desires to herself who felt judged, had a nervous breakdown. It was all tough going and she did it marvelously.

Have you succeeded in being as sexually candid as you wanted to be?
Yes, absolutely.

Who is your target audience for Maaya?
There are two kinds of people who will watch Maaya. One kind that is ready to enjoy some different kind of entertainment and the other who is waiting to ridicule it. Either way it’s a big piece of the pie