Now films on men's sexuality

Howoften have you seen a woman getting raped in a Hindi film?
Can���t keep count, right? But a man getting rapedin a Hindi film? Or a man prostituting himself? Never, because male sexuality isa topic which has remained under the carpet.
Thankfully cinema, liketime, is changing, and three new-age directors are making their debuts withfilms which discuss topics like male prostitution, rape and sexual identitycrisis.
Manish Gupta, who���s written four hard-hitting scriptsfor Ram Gopal Varma, is ready with his Hostel. This is no romantic collegecaper, the film deals with the bold subject of rape, that too of a male student.���I studied in an engineering college where I met a guy who was raped inthe hostel,��� recalls Manish. ���When I asked him if that was true, theexpression on his face was like somebody had died.��� For his debut film,Manish could think of no better subject than this. ���I���ve blatantlyshown all this and the censors have passed it,��� he says. A safer subjectwould have been easier to handle. ���But safe directors are a dime a dozen.Every film can���t be about loving your family,��� saysManish.
Saurabh Sengupta���s It���s a Man���s World isequally stark, about male prostitution. Why this subject? ���There have beenmany films made on female sex workers but nothing on men,��� explainsSaurabh. When he started work on the script, he wanted it to be a shocking film,���but when I started interacting with male sex workers, I realised theirfears and problems.��� When people see his film, they will be shocked, buthe hopes to be able to convey the human side of maleprostitution.
Sudipto Chattopadhyay���s Pankh, on the other hand,deals with the sexual identity of a man and is set against the backdrop of thefilm industry. A small boy who plays a girl in Hindi films grows up to deal withan identity crisis. ���The young man is caught in a psychological matrix ofgender confusion that has been imposed on him by his social circumstance,���says Sudipto.
All these directors have one agenda, to make theaudience aware that these things happen. ���My film is supposed to shockpeople into thinking ���This has to be stopped���,��� says Manish.