Malaysia First Gay-Themed Movie In A Bottle Makes Only RM550,000

Last updated on June 28th, 2017

As reported in the Star, Malaysia first gay-themed movie In A Bottle makes only RM550,000, and not grossed slightly more than 1 million ringgit in its first five days, as widely reported in the foreign press.

Back in 2011, Malaysia shown its first controversial gay movie tiled “…Dalam Botol” (Inside A Bottle), which was originally called “Anu Dalam Botol” which means “Penis In A Bottle“.

The word “penis” was removed.

Malaysia First Gay-Themed Movie In A Bottle Makes Only RM550,000The story is about the relationship between Rubidin (Ruby), a transsexual Muslim man, and her wayward male lover Ghaus.

Their relationship is tested when the former decides to undergo a sex-change operation. As the story goes, Ghaus is unable to accept “Ruby” and walks out of the relationship.

Sometime later, Ruby decides that a woman’s life is not for him, and decides to stop taking the female hormone injections.

Then he falls in love with Dina (Diana Danielle) and they decide to marry.

Malaysia First Gay-Themed Movie In A Bottle Makes Only RM550,000

With so much brouhaha happening, yet this Malaysian Malay gay-theme movie just managed to make a paltry sum of  RM550,000 at the box office in Malaysia, and not RM1 million as reported in many foreign news sites.

It was Raja Azmi who claimed that the film raked in RM1mil at the box office five days after its release on March 24th 2011, but this was refuted by the National Film Development Corporation.

Probably Malaysians have heard so much about  gay stories (Anwar Ibrahim and Saiful sodomy case) in Malaysia in our daily news,  that we are so immune or unaffected by this movie.

According to its producer Raja Azmi Raja Sulaiman, the movie was based on the life of a friend and she wants to share with others about the life of a transsexual.

As you know Malaysian censorship board, even forbids local movies from showing unmarried Muslim heterosexual couples kissing and hugging.

So don’t even think about watching two Malaysian gay men kissing in this Malay movie. Forget about any racy scenes.

There is one rather tame opening scene that depicts bare-chested men rubbing each other on a beach.

It was reported that there was a nude scene involving Arja, which was snipped by the censorship board.

It was reported in The San Diego Union Tribune, Raja Azmi said that she still shot scenes of skin-to-skin intimacy, with them hugging passionately.

She added without that, she wouldn’t be able to show how much the characters really love each other.

From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people.” – Unknown