Actor Rytasha Rathore, who shoots the show, is unfazed as she talks to a multitude of people - street vendors who sell dildos in the open
Rathore attended a workshop where the aim was to find out what her 'kink' was. Along with being flogged, some experiments involved candle wax. Pic/Vice India
The first episode of Vice India's documentary series, Sex-Rated, is about sex toys. Actor Rytasha Rathore, who shoots the show, is unfazed as she talks to a multitude of people — street vendors who sell dildos in the open, to the owners of Lovetreats, a quirky online store selling sex toys. "Log abhi bhi darte hai… par yeh sub kuch normal hai," a hawker in Mumbai's Fountain area tells her. As we watch the three episodes of the four-part series (the fourth on sex education is out tomorrow) on sex toys, BDSM, and porn, we are also amazed by just how normal talking about or living with sex is for some people in India, a country not known for its sexual forwardness.
"To be honest, just a Google search revealed how kinky we are as a nation, but finding the right people to talk was the real challenge," says assistant producer and researcher Sneha Nair. "The people we found eventually were those who didn't want to brush sex under the carpet, but have a conversation about it." She hits the nail on the head. Through the show you meet a variety of interesting, and thought-provoking characters, who all seem to know what they are talking about. There is a male masseuse who wants to be a porn star, a premier dominatrix from Kolkata and a collective from Delhi committed to people finding and enjoying their kinks.
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Esha Paul, Sneha Nair and Rytasha Rathore. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
"We didn't want to just look at sex as sex, but as a larger sex-positive revolution that's happening around the country. It's about people who don't just work with it (like activists), but who look at it purely a human function. We didn't want to be voyeuristic. We wanted to tap into consent, pleasure and general etiquette in the bedroom," says director and producer Esha Paul.
Rathore, whose genial way gets the conversation going more easily, like her social media personality, even plays guinea pig in the show, when she gets flogged by a suede flogger at a kink workshop held by the Kinky Collective in Delhi. In the show she keeps a straight face, as a lady flogs her bottom, and members talk about dog cages. "I had to keep a straight face, as so many people were watching. I pretended I was at a theatre workshop! But it's an experience. It felt good, I could totally get into it. But I don't even think it's really sexual even with them. It's about some kind of release, and the power play," says Rathore, who has a steady follow online after she played an overweight woman in the show Badho Bahu. Paul adds, "Exactly. It won't even sometimes end in intercourse. It could just be role playing, like a play date, or session as they call it.
Rytasha Rathore
"The three women agree that since they are looking at it through a feminine gaze, the show does have a feminist outlook. "But that's needed at this time. The dominatrix we met in Kolkata, was such a boss babe. She was calling the shots, and she wasn't fazed at anything. She has a very regular job, and a son, but here she was standing in the middle of a Kolkata market, showing Rytasha how normal household items can be used in BDSM. It was inspiring," says Paul.
And though the series is being appreciated by both women and men, all of whom think sex needs to be talked about more, the hate is coming by the kilos too. "Just because I am hosting a sex show, must mean I am ready to have sex. I have got so many messages saying 'I want to sex you'," says Rathore, "But then there are messages that just say, Thank You, and those matter the most."
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