Have you ever wondered renting a boyfriend for a dinner date? If yes, then there is an app that lets you rent a boyfriend for a romantic date. Rent A Boyfriend ( RABF) is an app which was launched in Mumbai and Pune on Friday. The objective of the app is to help lonely people overcome their depression by having a partner by their side for a day. The initiative doesn’t include females because ‘rent a girl’ does not sound right in India. People can hire a boyfriend for a movie, dinner or lunch date. The hired boyfriend is also eligible to give you emotional advice during the time when the girl is sad.
The app is the brainchild of 29-year-old Kaushal Prakash who hopes to drive away depression in India by providing a rental boyfriend to everyone. There is a gap between boy and friend so as to put away the idea of a platonic relationship. The interior decorator-turned-entrepreneur Prakash said, “There won’t be any sexual relations or private meetings.” While the founder insists that this app ( Rent A Boyfriend ) does not promote sexual relationship on his app, the website showcases profiles of men ranging from the age of 22-25-years-old flaunting their six-pack abs in a shirtless avatar.
Kaushal Prakash came up with this idea with his own experience of suffering from depression. Rent A Boyfriend (RABF) also have a toll-free number where people can consult a psychiatric for a period of 15-20 minutes for Rs 500. Speaking about the call centre filled with professional psychiatrists, he said, “It will be easier to speak about these issues over the phone as in India as visiting a psychiatrist elicits the same kind of “log kya kahege (what will people say?)” response as a girl who wears short clothes in public.”
Talking about the men in display on Rent A Boyfriend (RABF ) website, Prakash said, “You can rent a celebrity for Rs 3,000, or a model for up to Rs 2,000, or an aam aadmi (commoner) for just Rs 300-400 per hour. The website works strictly on a commission basis, giving 70 per cent of the earning to the boyfriends. With a corpus of 65 belonging to the age group of 20-25 years, RABF also has a couple of 55-year-old boyfriends in the mix.”