Savita Bhabhi comes to life

Does the name Savita Bhabhi ring a bell?

Well, she is a cartoon character, an artist’s impression of a raunchy housewife, who indulges in sinful sexual adventures.

From being one of India’s first adult characters to recording a huge number of hits on her website, from the site being banned by the Indian government to protests against the ban by quite a few people, Savita Bhabhi has come a long way.

Now, finally, she gets a face. An actress, who wants her name to remain a mystery, has dared to play the role of Savita Bhabhi on an Internet soap called Jay Hind.

“My real name is a mystery. You can call me Rekha Kumari,” she says.

Rekha Kumari says it was not a difficult decision to play a raunchy character on screen. “Playing an adult star is similar to the challenge of playing a courtesan like Umrao Jaan," she says. "In other words, it’s just another role. In a lot of mainstream Bollywood films, heroines do very vulgar and objectionable stuff. In the show, I do not wear revealing clothes like a bikini. Also, I do not have any steamy scenes.”

Abhigyan Jha, the creator and director of the soap, says, “When we were ideating on what should be the content of the first episode, the team felt it should be about freedom of expression. We wanted to use the context of freedom of expression in the form of a fake interview.

"My writers — Rahul and Varun — hit upon the idea of bringing out the banned cartoon character of Savita Bhabhi in flesh and blood and doing an interview. A quick search on the internet told me she was the biggest example of internet censorship in India and netizens were up in arms against the government's decision to ban a harmless cartoon character.”