MUMBAI MIRROR (January 17, 2017)

"You are not what you show, you are what you Google,” says Vikram Bhatt when quizzed about his new shocking yet intriguing web series Maaya which premieres on his soon-to-be-launched web channel, VB on the Web on January 27, the filmmaker’s 48th birthday.

It’s been less than 24 hours since the promo went online and already it is creating ripples of excitement in an audience that craves different content. “It is erotica, the kind that lives in all of us… The sexual fantasies within us which we are often too frightened to talk about for the fear of being judged by society. Maaya is not afraid, it dares to talk of them!” Vikram asserts.

The web series is the journey of a Mumbai housewife who makes her way into the dark world of BDSM (Bondage Dominance/Submission and Sadism/Masochism)… A world made famous by E.L. James’ 2011 bestseller, Fifty Shades Of Grey and the two volumes that followed along with the film.

“Maaya appeals to the primordial in all of us, it underlines the fact that the body has a mind of its own,” points out Vikram, adding that it also asks the ever-important question: Does society have the right to barge into the bedroom of two consenting adults?

Maaya featuring Shama Sikander, Veer Aryan, Vipul Gupta, Aradhya Taing and Parina Chopra, takes sex out of private closets and onto a public platform to initiate a debate on what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s done and what can be undone when you give into to your basic instincts. It’s about the body with a mind of its own.