Savita Bhabhi


Savita Bhabhi is a pornographic cartoon character, a housewife, published by Kirtu. Her promiscuous behaviour is justified by her being ignored by Ashok, her husband. The title is a respectful term for North Indian housewives. The character was promoted through a comic strip medium by anonymous activists in India. It has since been converted into a subscription-based strip and is now running on SavitaBhabhi.com website.

History

The character proved controversial in India as soon as it was introduced in 2008, due to conservatism present in Indian society. Some critics felt it represented the face of India's new ultra-liberal section.
The Savita Bhabhi movie was released in May 2013; it deals with the subject of internet censorship in a humorous way with Savita Bhabhi as the heroine who saves the day.

Popularity

According to BuzzFeed India, Savita Bhabhi is popular due to:
  1. It is very sexy to see an Indian woman unapologetically going after pleasure within a society which constantly shames women for the pursuit of pleasure.
  2. She fits the stereotypes of an Indian bhabhi, but she also breaks those stereotypes by indulging in her lust.
  3. Though she is depicted as an upper class upper caste woman, she pursuits sexual relationships with multiple people irrespective of their caste, class or gender.

    Controversies

Production of pornography is broadly illegal in India. As a result, the original website was censored by the Indian government under its anti-pornography laws. This was met with criticism from the likes of Indian libertarian blogger and journalist Amit Varma. Eventually, mainstream media columnists joined in criticizing the ban as reflecting a "meddlesome, patriarchal mindset" of a "Net Nanny" government. This resulted in an online movement to save the character from being destroyed.
Initially the creators of the site chose to remain anonymous, going under the assumed collective name Indian Porn Empire. However, in 2009, the creator of the site Puneet Agarwal, a second generation Indian living in the UK revealed his identity in an attempt to fight against the ban. However a month later, due to family pressure he announced his decision to take down the comic strip.
The presence of a character bearing a resemblance to Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan was also met with criticism on Indian television channels.

Influences

UK-based businessman Puneet Agarwal tried to bring back Savita Bhabhi in the form of an animated movie titled Savita Bhabhi Movie in 2013.

Spin-off series

The success of Savita Bhabhi has led to various spin-off series: