Blue film

A blue film is a film associated with the amateur underground pornography industry in India. [cite book|title=Sexy Deepal Shaw Sheds it all in 'Blue Film'|author=Suniti Manjrekar|url=http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/2121.asp] [cite book|title=Super sexy bed partners made best amateur blue film in India|author=Associated Press|url=http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/4386.asp] Other names for the industry include the more reserved 'human trafficking,' which refers to the perceived belief that participants have little or no control over their participation in the films due to economic pressures from the Indian underground crime syndicates, as they are 'trafficked' around.

Indian government response

While the Indian government has attempted to limit or prevent the production and distribution of such tapes, manufacturers have become increasingly creative, even following the precedents set by the Japanese and American pornography industries and offering the films in animated format. [cite book|url=http://www.hindu.com/2005/04/29/stories/2005042919440300.htm|title=Cartoon blue film racket smashed|Author="The Hindu"|date=April 29, 2005]

The name ostensibly comes from the fact that to maintain anonymity in the past, video participants masked their identities via blue bars across their eyes added during video post-processing.Fact|date=June 2007 Unverified online sources also indicate that the slang finds its origins in that during the 1980s, pornographic video casettes were sealed using blue tape.

"Kalyug" and Bollywood

In 2005, Mohit Suri directed a movie called Kalyug in 2005, starring Deepal Shaw and Kunal Khemu. The movie was produced by Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt.

The film attempted to reveal aspects of the industry as a doppelganger to its more mainstream Bollywood counterpart. It was later renamed "Kalyug", due to controversy over its title.

It deals with a newly married couple caught on camera at a hotel during their honeymoon. The video is released on the Internet and the bride ultimately commits suicide. The husband, in pursuit of revenge, delves into the world of underground pornography, eventually travelling to Amsterdam and Switzerland to seek out the criminals of the underground pornography industry that profited from the film.

While receiving attention for addressing a taboo subject in a generally negative light, [cite book|title='Blue Film is Anti-Sex'|author=Dominic Ferrao|Publisher=The Times of India|date=June 27, 2005|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1153793.cms] the film has been criticized by Western audiences for a relatively cursory and inaccurate treatment of a serious issue plaguing the subcontinent. [cite book|title=Blue Film is Now Kalyug|author=India FM News Bureau|url=http://www.indiafm.com/news/2005/7/5/5436/index.html] Actress Amrita Singh was nominated by the Filmfare Awards for Best Actress in a Villainous Role for her depiction of Simi Roy, a ruthless businesswoman who runs a fictional pornography website in the movie and is a queenpin in the underground adult industry.

Blue Film in literature

"Blue Film" is also the name of a twentieth century short story set in Thailand by the prolific British novelist and playwright Graham Greene.

The story deals with an older married couple that comes across an illegal pornography theater in the backstreets of a city in Thailand. As they are watching a video, the wife realizes the man in the film is actually her husband, and that she has stumbled across an indiscretion of his youth. The wife is at first repulsed, although she eventually forgives him and they make love. While they are intimate, the husband finds himself thinking of the woman he was with thirty years prior and realizes he loves her youthful ideal more than the reality of the woman he is with as an older man. [cite book|title=Collected Short Stories|author=Graham Greene|Publisher=Penguin Classics|year=1986]

ee also

* Pornography in India
* Prostitution in India

References