MUMBAI: Why is it so tough to talk about sex in a country which is home of texts and temples such as the Kamasutra and Khajuraho? Children are not imbibed with appropriately curated or delivered sex knowledge in schools. Sex is still a taboo topic in India. Forget that, rather than providing an answer to the ‘curious minds’, most parents clam up when having to talk to kids about the ‘birds & the bees’. The bigger question that arrives here is: Why not satisfy them when in doubt rather than misinforming them or leading them to wrong sources of information.
Yash Raj Films’ youth arm Y-Films is here to deliver information across different themes related to sex / sexuality with its new web-series titled Sex Chat with Pappu & Papa. Divided into 5 parts of less than 10 minutes each, the fictional series will deal with everything from masturbation and periods to condoms, pregnancy and homosexuality. Each episode will deal with a new theme. “These are a few topics which are often kept in a closet and are never really discussed. Curiosities of children in today’s time are answered by Google. Research clearly shows that sex talk with parents is directly and clearly linked to safer sexual behaviour. They have incorrect perceptions about everything related to sex”, says Y-Films head Ashish Patil.
Sex Chat with Pappu & Papa is slated to launch by mid-July and will follow YFilms’s existing format with new episodes every Tuesday.
Patil further adds, “Through this series, we want to converse basic fundamentals of sexuality to everyone but in a clean, honest style with a lot of humour. It is a unique show of its kind in India and probably the world, certainly a show with a lot of heart.”
Targeted at everyone from kids to adults, the series is a story of the Watsa family featuring a curious 7-year-old boy, Punit Watsa (Kabir Sajid) nicknamed Pappu who shoots the most outrageous questions to his Papa, Anand (Anand Tiwari). The father attempts to answer them to the best of his ability initially with a lot of awkwardness and eventually with a lot of fun, simple anecdotes.
All this while his own father – the very traditional, conservative and possibly khadoos Pitaji played by Sachin Pilgaonkar- keeps questioning his actions. While his wife, the much pregnant, Shireen enacted by Sanjeeda Shaikh and mother, Usha Watsa aka Mataji played by Alka Amin get torn between this mad conflict and help Pappu & Papa find peace, balance and, of course, add a lot of their own masti to it.
The series also features Abish Matthew, Ali Fazal, Faisal Khan, Gaurav Pandey, Saba Azad, Sharib Hashmi, Shreya Dhanwanthary, Urvashi Rautela, Dr. Piya Ballani Thakkar, etc., playing different characters.
The show is directed by Ashish Patil while Nikhil Taneja is the associate producer of the series. Written by Devang Kakkad and Gopal Datt, the series has been shot by Adil Afsar, while the catchy music has been given by Superbia.. The promo with its fun element has already garnered 126,357 views within three days of its launch and is created by Taxi Films.
Y-Films has heavily researched and ratified the concept of this series by some of the foremost medical experts, top hormonal, gynaecological doctors of the country.
The series is not targeting any specific category of brands to get on board as sponsors. “I think everyone should invest money in this. We are not focusing only on sex related brands. Anyone from Basmati rice to a car brand can hop on in as sponsors”, voices Patil.
Apart from promoting it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and its official page, the series is also available to be picked up by schools for free. “I think this show should be aired in all the schools for better understanding. I will give it for free if any school is keen to do so. We hope it creates some genuine social impact, not just locally but globally”, adds Patil.
Cheers to Patil and his team for providing sex education to impressionable minds, something that schools should have actually be doing!
