Boman Irani and director Mikhil Musale met veteran sexologist Dr Mahinder Watsa several times to help prep for the actor’s role in their film
Hiren Kotwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 10, 2019)

Boman Irani, who plays sex expert Dr Vardhi in Mikhil Musale’s quirky comedy, Made In China, starring Rajkummar Rao and Mouni Roy, met several professionals to get into character. The most relevant material came from renowned sexologist and Mirror columnist Dr Mahinder Watsa.

Mikhil, who researched the subject and wrote the script of the Dinesh Vijan production, says, “Dr Watsa was the most honest, experienced and articulate, he’s been working in this field since the ’50s and his knowledge, whether clinical, psychological or societal, is vast. He was of great help.”

The debutant director goes on to share that according to Dr Watsa, sex is a subject people are the most confused about. “Even though there’s so much information available online and it is discussed widely on the internet, a lot of people continue to be misled by incorrect information,” sighs Mikhil, admitting that both Boman and he were surprised by some of the queries posed to the 96-year-old veteran.

Many of these queries relate to basic birds and bees questions that you would think would have been answered by biology textbooks by now. “Boman and I were shocked to hear that people still ask if a man and woman masturbating together can lead to pregnancy. A lot of men have queries about the size of their penis, premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction, issues which have been discussed ad nauseum, but doubts still persist,” points out Mikhil.

He goes on to add that while a woman confides in her mother, friend or a gynaecologist, men share their insecurities anonymously for fear of societal embarrassment. “It’s surprising how inhibited we are about the subject given that we are a country of 1.3 billion,” Mikhil notes, sharing that his co-writer Karan Vyas once met a quack with the story that he was apprehensive about his performance on his wedding night. “He was told to stop masturbating till the wedding. When Karan pointed out that innumerable articles on the web state that masturbation is harmless, the quack got angry and told him that if he knows so much from the internet, then why did he come there to waste his time?”

Instances like this made Mikhil and his team realise that there are few qualified sexologists in our country whom our people can go to without any inhibitions. “That’s the reason we made this film. The issue needs to be addressed but in an entertaining yet sensitive manner.”

Ask him if Boman’s Dr Vardhi is inspired by Dr Watsa, and he shakes his head, “No, Dr Watsa is a Punjabi who is from the North and went to college in Mumbai, while Dr Vardhi is Gujarati. But the queries they get are common.”