A love letter to Ranveer Singh on male nudity

When I saw the images from actor Ranveer Singh ’s nude photo shoot for Paper Magazine, my immediate response was respect. I wanted to call him up, and say, “You are beautiful!” I couldn’t do that because I don’t have his phone number, so I hope he gets to read this piece.

I have liked Ranveer for a long time, found him attractive, and rejoiced in how he shows the middle finger to stereotypical ideas of masculinity through his choice of clothes, his ease with expressing intimacy regardless of the other person’s gender, and his awareness of how energy can be used to lift other people. The photo shoot, however, reveals another dimension of him.

It’s all in the eyes, and the rest of the body seems merely a vehicle. I am being honest when I say that this particular set of images did not turn me on. They accomplished what I believe to be far more important. They pushed me to see beyond flesh, skin and bone. Apart from Ranveer, the credit goes to photographer Ashish Shah and creative director Kshitij Kankaria.

In these pictures, I do not see a man who is anxious about whether he is well-endowed or not. He is not making an attempt to seduce, not trying to present himself as a sex bomb. What I see here is a human being in dialogue with himself, even as the world surrounding him believes that he is performing for them. Ranveer might come off as someone who is hungry for attention and applause but I suspect that his deeper wish is only to be seen and loved.

What is dearest to him is honoured with privacy. His wedding with actor Deepika Padukone was an entirely private affair. When it comes to the most significant moments of his life, he seems to prefer the quiet over the flamboyant. It makes perfect sense. Performance is an energy-intensive activity, and regenerating all that energy requires you to switch off and engage in what nurtures you. This cannot happen on public platforms. It is sacred territory.

All of this could be one giant projection, with no grounding in how Ranveer actually lives his life. My interpretation exists alongside others like advocate Karuna Nandy, for instance, who tweeted, “Ranveer Singh’s photos are for the female gaze. He’s being trolled this badly because he’s giving up power by objectifying himself and betraying the pudgy patriarchy.” This tweet made me smile because I thought of Ranveer in the Padmaavat song ‘Binte Dil’.

Perhaps, with Ranveer, what you see is what you get. To read the images as a performance for the female gaze seems odd because it fixes the target audience not only as female but as heterosexual. I don’t know what lesbian women make of these images but I do know that Ranveer has a huge following among gay, bisexual and queer men. Thankfully, Ranveer feels no need to deploy these identity terms; he strips himself and language to the bare minimum.

When comedian and talk show host Kapil Sharma had publicly asked Ranveer if he stole clothes from his wife’s wardrobe, he had no qualms about admitting that he did. The barb didn’t hurt Ranveer. It ended up saying more about the show’s host, and his idea of gender.

I haven’t watched every film of Ranveer’s but one of the most wonderful things about his persona on-screen and off-screen is his consistent play with categories of gender and sexuality. He seduces women in films, and kisses men on talk shows, without a touch of insecurity. He may not show up at pride marches, talk about genderfluid fashion, or wave rainbow flags, but through the way in which he carries himself, he affirms my queerness. He gives many men shackled by patriarchy the confidence to feel comfortable in their own skin.

While Ranveer’s nude photo shoot has been compared with the one that Milind Soman did in his modelling days with Madhu Sapre and a snake, there are key differences. Ranveer is not in an advertisement. Ranveer is unaccompanied. Ranveer is not invoking the Biblical story of Adam and Eve’s fall from grace after eating the forbidden fruit thanks to Satan’s intervention. Ranveer’s images turn down the volume. They are profoundly introspective.

I looked at them several times. Each time, my heart expanded and I felt a burst of warmth for him. Perhaps I feel protective of Ranveer because of my own experience of posing in the nude for artist friends who sketch. I am grateful for those opportunities because they helped me appreciate myself free of the baggage that comes from external ideas of beauty and desirability. Those sketches were not for public consumption, which is why I agreed to pose for them, so I admire Ranveer even more for finding the courage to do this nude photo shoot.

Everyone who is making vile remarks about Ranveer would benefit greatly from reading Richa Jha and Ruchi Mhasane’s gorgeous book Dance of the Wild (2017) published by Pickle Yolk Books. It revolves around three generations living under the same roof – Shilu, her mother, and her maternal grandmother – and talking about nudity, freedom and shame. Shilu likes to dance naked. If her cat does not have to wear clothes, why does she have to? This line of reasoning does not sit well with her grandmother, who too used to like dancing naked when she was a child. Shilu’s mother did the same in her childhood. How did growing up become synonymous with covering up? This question is certainly worth thinking about.

I know that people make sharp, impermeable distinctions between nudity, erotica and pornography, but I believe that much of this is quite subjective. It seems best to narrate one’s own view, with all its idiosyncrasies and limitations, and stay open to others. Films will come and go but there are three things about Ranveer that I will always remember – the day I saw him touching Deepika’s parents’ feet at the Filmfare Awards in 2016, Season 7 of Koffee with Karan where Ranveer called himself actor Alia Bhatt’s ‘sakhi’, and this nude photo shoot. We love actors not only for who they are as professionals. We see them as human beings.

Chintan Girish Modi is a Mumbai-based writer who tweets @chintanwriting

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