By Joanna Lobo:
After cartoon porn star Savita Bhabhi, came Velamma, a sexy aunty with real curves. Why are some men so turned on by Aunty? And is this liberating or degrading for women?
Most of us have heard of Savita Bhabhi. The sexy woman next door, with a penchant for extramarital affairs, who took the country by storm when she first appeared. Created in 2008 by U.K. businessman Puneet Agrawal (or Deshmukh), the character has since gained a massive following. The young housewife who is unafraid of her curves and her body and who always calls the shots, has become an intrinsic part of the porn landscape in India.
But there’s another woman whose antics have not been getting as much press as Savita Bhabhi. Mrs. Velamma Lakshmi or Velamma, has been described as ‘a loving and innocent South Indian Aunty’.
‘Voluptuous Aunties’
It was the success of the Savita Bhabhi character, despite a ban and whirlwind of controversy, that gave Deshmukh the confidence to launch new characters. “Each individual has his own liking,” he says. “Some people like thin and sexy girls like Savita and some people like voluptuous aunties such as Velamma. Our ultimate aim was to satisfy all individuals with their own favourite sexy Indian porn toon character. We have also created other characters such as Priya Rao, Rita, Kammobai…”
Deshmukh explains the differences between the two. “Savita Bhabhi is a character based in North India, a woman who finds the need to explore her sexuality and enjoy the moment. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she is always open to new sexual experiences. Velamma is more naive and it’s this naivety that leads her into sexual situations.”
Not Ashamed
Velamma is discovering her sexuality, so she is open to everything. She plays on the male fantasy of the ‘aunty’ character and is frequently shown having sex with much younger men. An extremely voluptuous woman, she is not afraid to play out her sexual fantasies, be it with women or with more than one man at a time.
Velamma is an unusual porn star – she is unashamed of her body, her curves and her skin colour and she proudly sports pubic and body hair. “The intention was to make her look real. Even though the character is fictitious, the audience expects the character to look real. Based on the feedback received from our audience on our previous characters, we created Velamma,” says Deshmukh.
The situations that Velamma finds herself in are usually of her own doing. There’s a submissiveness to her that is put down to naivety. She trusts people implicitly and doesn’t think twice before luring in the boy next door who is besotted with her or sleeping with another woman to satisfy her husband’s sexual fantasies. “Her innocence,” says Deshmukh, “sometimes makes her do things which might go a bit far.”
Helping Women’s Sexuality?
There are episodes in which she is forced to have sex despite not wanting to, where she sleeps with very young boys, and where her character slips off her sari for someone without bothering to check on the person. In a comic crossover, there’s an episode where Savita Bhabhi and Velamma’s husband do a wife swap but without letting their wives know. Isn’t this glamorising sex offences? Deshmukh is quick to defend these storylines. “We never support incest, underage or other forms of violent sex at any cost and we will never do that. All the characters with whom Velamma has sex are above 18 years,” says Deshmukh.
There’s a sort of moral duality to such comic porn characters. On the one hand, they embody a women’s sexuality and her need to fulfil her sexual desires, breaking out of society’s moral bounds. On the other hand, they showcase situations in which a woman’s choice isn’t taken into account. The stories may be fictitious, but female comic porn characters appear to be a long way off from actually helping in the revolution around women’s sexuality.
This article was originally published here on Love Matters.