Vikram Bhatt’s latest venture is a web series Maya, which like many of the filmmaker’s previous projects is an erotic thriller. The trailer for the film went viral today and thanks to its theme of BDSM, many have drawn similarities between this the series and Fifty Shades Of Grey. The question that crossed our minds, however, was not whether it borrowed from the Hollywood flick. One has to wonder who Bhatt had in mind as an audience when he decided to make the series. His previous Emraan Hashmi movies had an identifiable target group, but Maya leaves us baffled. We’re leaving debates about the rights and wrongs of such movies and trying to figure out who will actually watch Maya.
Consider this, Bhatt decided to make it a web series instead of a film – probably because the cast was too unknown to support a big release and also to avoid the glaring gaze of the censor board. However, if viewers have to turn to the internet, isn’t there more lascivious content on it that would be better suited to their tastes? Regardless of how much such films would want to stress that they are ‘art’ and not ‘sleaze’, let’s admit that their X factor is the sex factor. And nothing wrong with this, but on the internet, there’s some fierce competition in this field.
Watch the trailer here:
Maya is also made in English, so that leaves out the majority of the Emraan Hashmi crowd that were more tuned into Hindi. So, wouldn’t the segment of the audience which is comfortable watching English films just tune into Fifty Shades instead? This series has no big names to boast of and Bhatt has announced that there is no nudity in it either – Fifty Shades seems to have both. Maya is a mystery about a housewife who takes a lover to explore BDSM but loses her memory. The real mystery, however, is who will tune in to watch it.
