Swara Bhasker’s short film, Sheer Qorma, themed on homosexuality will have its world premiere at the on-going San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival in the USA. In her words, it’s rather “rewarding and validating” to have a project screened at one of the oldest queer film fests in the world.

Sharing her excitement, she says, “Children feeling misunderstood by their parents and parents struggling to understand their children’s choices is one of the most universal experiences of our growing up days. This is a beautiful particularity about our film. I’m proud and honoured to be a part of this special film.”

The actor says that the LGBTQ+ community, especially in Indian mainstream cinema, have been represented in a certain stereotypical way, and believes that it is important to change it.

“When you have straight people, who aren’t aware, haven’t spoken to and don’t have friends who belong to this community, making these films, they are bound to get a stereotypical view. They do not locate the characters in tandem with the lived experiences of the community and just replicate whatever has been shown earlier,” she says.

Ask Bhasker about what can bring about a change and she asserts, “The way to change is to have more people from the community behind the camera and in the writing process.”

Talking about how “a new breed of opinionated influencers” are playing an important role in driving change by making homosexuality a part of the mainstream discourse, the Bhaag Beanie Bhaag actor elaborates, “Social media reflects the voices of different kinds of people. If there’s a stereotypical representation in your content, you’ll have to hear it from the public and even the community. This has created greater accountability and greater awareness. The road ahead looks good because the community is a lot more vocal and more people have become more sensitive towards them.”