Soon, I was able to pinpoint mistakes in the scripts of other movies. As a child, I would steal Rs 20 every Friday to watch movies. Has that experience helped you while making Mastram? However, I think even they will find something to like in this movie. Well, I’m not making a porn film, am I? Some might be disappointed with the movie, but I have not kept the audience in mind while making the film. In the original Mastram, there is erotica, not filth.ĭo you think the titillating factor will help draw crowds? In the film, we have shown what he writes visually, with a voiceover reading his works out loud. We spoke to the older readers of Mastram, who remembered how good the writing was.

Later, as others began to use that name, the writing turned vulgar it became a business. The original Mastrams were quite artistic. Mastram’s depiction of sex was vivid, even believed to be crude. He tries to follow his dreams, but with financial burdens and people rejecting his other writings, he eventually starts writing porn. So what if he wrote porn? I have shown him as a good man, a good family man who wants to be a writer. Perhaps once people watch the film, they will disagree with my interpretation of the writer. The idea was to produce a fictional account, but it was impossible to get even a few facts to add to our story.ĭid his writing help you construct the character? We couldn’t even find out where the books were printed. Beyond that, either no one knew who the writer was or no one wanted to tell us. And so we tried reverse tracing the books from the market, but only got to the wholesale dealers. I tried researching Mastram first in Bhopal, then in Delhi, places where I had contacts. We went hunting for small, old-time publishers. If the film does well, they’ll get paid.Ĭonsidering there is very little information available on the man himself, what sort of research went into the making of the film? All the crew members are friends who’ve come aboard without any personal fee. I approached Ajay Rai, the producer of the film, whom I knew since the Gangs of Wasseypur days. So we made a fictional account of his life. After much research, however, I found nothing on the man himself.

Reading the books, I often wondered, what does this man tell his family? Many years later, when Gangs of Wasseypur was in post-production, I came back to this idea. Also, that was the age when we were all curious about sex. We had just a few ways of entertaining ourselves. In the 1990s, every home did not have a TV set.

The idea for Mastram came many years ago when I was in school.

Mastram characters