A few days ago, someone asked Onir on social media, “Why do queer people make coming out a big deal? Straight people don’t have to do the same.” The filmmaker responded, “Straight men and women do not have to be closeted. There is nothing for them to hide. Their existence, desire and love — it is all out in the open. And the reason we come out is to claim our spaces outside the closet so that we have a world where we don’t need to be in the closet.” In a Pride Month special interview with us, Onir shares, “The very fact that such questions are being asked is a sign that we have to keep educating people and keep making the right noise for visibility.” Excerpts from the chat:

Onir feels that while many speak about the pandemic having brought them closer to their families, this period has been doubly tough for the queer community, “For a lot of queer people, being home means going back to a space where they are not accepted and celebrated. In such instances, they either have to hide their sexuality or face abuse and threats for expressing themselves freely. This causes anxiety and mental health issues, adding to the trauma that the queer community faces every day,” says the My Brother Nikhil director.

Onir adds that he regularly gets calls asking for work or seeking help regarding mental health issues from the community. He shares, “Mumbai is an expensive city to live in, and many people have left because they cannot afford it anymore. Queer people are constantly worried about how to escape the unsafe places they are returning to. It is really heartbreaking to see so many of them suffer like this. I wish I could help them all.”

With the Pride Month celebrations, another important development is in the process right now. Onir explains, “We are also in the process of the Delhi High Court’s hearing about same-sex marriage, which is a very important step for us. The next hearing is soon (July 6). However, it is constantly debated by people who oppose it for the most ridiculous reasons. Having said that, this month is for the recognition of what we have achieved as a community. It has been a long struggle for us. I am often amazed by how many people choose to remain silent about LGBTQIA+ rights. So, Pride Month is needed to make the right noise.”

There’s been a discussion about queer representation in Indian cinema for a while now. Sharing his opinion on the same, Onir says, “People forget that we are the largest film making country in the world. To me, Dostana is not an LGBTQIA+ narrative. When I’m talking about real films that deal with our lives, I hardly see them, even today. The percentage is very small. Earlier, when I made My Brother... Nikhil, it was termed as 'not box office-friendly'. Today, the box office word has been replaced with eyeballs. When I did some of my best work, nobody told me about eyeballs.”

And have OTT platforms made a difference? He says, “The so-called freedom that one has with OTT platforms is an overhyped myth because whatever you do, it has to go through various levels of scrutiny by people who think they can evaluate what you have done. I won’t say everything is bad; the good stuff is also happening. But queer representation is very less.”

Opening up about his dating life and thoughts on marriage, Onir shares, “For me, dating becomes a bit different because I am a filmmaker and it mostly comes with baggage. It is not about my age or me being gay. The only thing people see is that I am a filmmaker and I might be their roadmap to something. My parents feel that if they are not around, I should have a partner. The only thing is that I don’t have a partner right now, but the guys I dated, they lived with me, and my parents always graciously accepted them and loved them.”

He adds, “My parents want me to get married and if same-sex marriage is recognised in India, I would like to get married, too, not to conform to anything, but to make a statement that it is my right to get married, too. The sad part is that gay partners don’t even get legal rights. Hence, recognising same-sex marriage is very important.”

Onir is of the opinion that the society has been dominated by heteronormative narrative, and he stresses on the importance of coming out. He shares, “We have to come out of the closet to be visible. If we can’t be visible, that means there’s fear and shame. When Dutee Chand came out, it was absolutely inspiring that a sportsperson did it. I wish in my fraternity, too, people come out and celebrate themselves instead of playing hide and seek. Coming out will inspire not just youngsters, but their families, too, because they will understand and be accepting.” 

Times are changing and more and more novel and unconventional topics are being tackled in our films. But homosexuality is one such subject where we have slightly lagged behind. Here, we are not talking about caricature gay characters inserted in films for cheap laughs but realistic depiction of such people. Interestingly, Hollywood and many of our web series too are based on this idea. Even regional films on homosexuality have thrived. However, a handful of Hindi films have had protagonists playing gays.

So what’s stopping Bollywood for getting into it full throttle like its contemporaries? The biggest problem is that despite Supreme Court decriminalizing homosexuality and increase in awareness, it’s something that still remains a taboo. And films made on taboo topics can be detrimental. Akshay Kumar’s film on sanitation, Toilet – Ek Prem Katha, worked very well as this was a still a topic that can be discussed. But when he attempted to spread awareness about sanitary pads in Pad Man, the desired result was not achieved. Toilet – Ek Prem Katha earned Rs. 132.07 crore while Pad Man, despite having better word of mouth, could reach only till Rs. 78.22 crore.

Shockingly, none of the LGBT film of Bollywood has even seen a commercial success. Fire was the first such film in this genre. However, it was met with violent protests due to which the film was withdrawn. Sometime later, it was re-released after the Censor Board imposed cuts. Though it ran without any problem, the earnings were paltry.

Then, Split Wide Open, Rahul Bose-starrer, came next in this genre. But it was so niche that it went unnoticed. Karan Razdan’s 2004 flick, Girlfriend, was a story of an obsessive lesbian. It had immediately come after Murder, which popularized the idea of films with intimate scenes. It had loads of steamy and sleazy scenes and hence, it didn’t do much for the LGBT movement. And it was an average grosser at the ticket window.

Many other films then came up but were mostly small-budget. My Brother Nikhil, Onir’s first directorial, came all of a sudden, and as expected sank without a trace. Margarita With A Straw got a bit noticed but didn’t have any commercial trappings. Same happened with Aligarh. Angry Indian Goddesses was a fine piece of cinema and had an unexpected lesbian angle but viewers couldn’t give it a chance because of its very elite feel. Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyun, meanwhile, is considered to be a success story, and even has a sequel. But those who have seen it call it shoddy piece of cinema. And in cinemas, it was a big time disaster.

Karan Johar made two films and both have done a lot to make homosexuality mainstream. His 2008 flick Dostana was an average grosser and many even criticized for being cheap. However, homosexuals call this film a blessing as it at least ignited the conversation. During 10th anniversary of Dostana, prominent LGBTQ rights activist Harrish Iyer had told this writer, “Dostana broke the taboo. It was a landmark film as it mainstreamed the issue. It brought the conversation to the dining table. Dostana almost became a word for gays. People would say ‘Yeh log dono Dostana karte hai’ instead of saying ‘Yeh dono gay hai’!” He futher adds, “Karan Johar has done a lot of service to the homosexual community by bringing the conversation out from the closet into the open.” 8 years later, Karan Johar produced Kapoor & Sons. This was a hit film but homosexuality formed a very small part of the flick.

Last year, a lot of expectations were rested on Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga. It featured a mainstream actor like Sonam K Ahuja in the role of a lesbian. What’s more, her real life father Anil Kapoor played the part of her dad, and there was also Rajkummar Rao and two popular songs too add to the impact. Sadly, the film received mixed response. On top of that, the taboo topic obviously and also the serious nature of the film kept audiences away.

But now, we have a film that can finally emerge as the first box office success in this space - Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. It stars Ayushmann Khurrana and Jitendra Kumar as the lovers with Neena Gupta, Gajraj Rao, Manu Rishi Chadha and Maanvi Gagroo playing supporting parts. The trailer was unveiled few days back and has been loved for its clever writing and the feel good mood of the film. What’s great is that someone like Ayushmann Khurrana has backed it and that too at this stage of his career. Right now, he’s on a roll and how. He has had 6 back-to-back hits, and it all started with the first part of this film, called Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, which was based on performance anxiety. Ayushmann is known to take up such topics in his films like sperm donation, late pregnancy etc in his films and these movies are family entertainers, without too many embarrassing moments for the traditional audiences.

Due to these reasons, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan has a very high chance of becoming a hit at the box office. The costs also seem limited and even if it does a business of around Rs. 55-60 crore, it’ll be in the safe zone. One might argue that a value of a film should not be judged by the amount of money it makes. After all, films like My Brother Nikhil, Fire etc also have been significant films of this movement, notwithstanding their box office outcome. But when a film on gays becomes a hit and gets whole-hearted acceptance, it’ll encourage more and more producers and even mainstream actors to back such projects. And this, in turn, will serve the larger cause and bring social acceptance to LGBT in a small but significant way. Hence, here’s hoping that Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan turns out to be a great fare and that it gets the success it deserves!

Sangeeta Yadav (HINDUSTAN TIMES; November 8, 2019)

With over three decades in Bollywood, actor Juhi Chawla has worked in the best of both worlds — out-and-out commercial Bollywood movies and offbeat films. But what brought a huge transformation to her life and career was marriage and motherhood.

“There was a time when I used to do big-budget films with a huge troupe dancing in the background... some were commercial Bollywood or romance films. Then I got married and had kids and I stopped getting those kind of roles. What was offered to me was 3 Deewarein, Jhankaar Beats (both in 2003), My Brother Nikhil (2005) and many others that were very offbeat and not the typical Bollywood masala movies,” says Juhi.

When the actor started doing small-budget movies, she wasn’t “very comfortable”, but later she says she found the change “very refreshing”.

“Suddenly, I started doing small-budget films. The 30-40 dancers that I used to dance with disappeared. The actors were different, the sets looked more real, the unit would be smaller and you’d get to know everybody you worked with. Sometimes I’d even help them setup too,” says the Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga actor.

She adds how her makeup didn’t take “an hour-and-a-half or more”. She says, “I used to take just 20 minutes to dressup. Even the way they’d require me to act was different from the dialogue-baazi I did in my previous films. It was like a breath of fresh air.”

After becoming a mother to Jhanvi (18) and Arjun (16), the actor made a conscious decision to be very particular about her work. Juhi says, “As my kids were also little, I was doing fewer films in a year. So, there was a slowdown, but the films kept coming.”

During that time, Juhi also started experimenting with Punjabi films, such as Des Ho Yaa Pardes (2004) and Waris Shah (2007). As of now, she is happy “work keeps coming” and that keeps her going.

Film editor and screenwriter Apurva Asrani tracks the Hindi film industry’s transformative journey of coming out of the closet
Apurva Asrani (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 8, 2019)

Growing up in India in the 1980s, I remember stealing my father’s stash of Debonair magazines, rummaging through pages filled with nude women, and trying to find that image of a buff man. Often, he was in the same frame as the woman, and in my head, I would replace her face with that of another man, and pretend they were a gay couple. This was the best I could do as there was absolutely no imagery anywhere that alluded to homosexual existence.

The first time I saw a gay man on screen was in 1993 — in the hard-hitting film Philadelphia, where a cute Tom Hanks was in love with a dishy Antonio Banderas. After searching in the dark for 15 years, I was relieved to finally find an image which I could aspire to. This was around the same time that three brave young men — Ashok Row Kavi, Vivek Anand and Suhail Abbasi — were bringing out India’s first gay magazine, Bombay Dost. The representation in India had begun.

If you had told the 15-year-old me, about 26 years on, that I would be attending Mumbai’s own LGBTQ film festival — celebrating its tenth anniversary, and showcasing 160 LGBTQ-themed films — I would not have believed you.

Some 43 countries (with a maximum number of entries from India) sent in films for the four-day event that took place last June across the city’s most iconic theatres — Liberty Cinema and Metro INOX. Kashish’s opening night saw over 1,000 LGBTQ Indians proudly walk its glittering red carpet; Section 377 had been shown its place, and we were no longer criminals in the eyes of the law. It is heartening that the youth of today, who find themselves struggling with their sexuality, have a plethora of LGBTQ imagery to refer to, and need not feel isolated like people of my generation did. In the last few years alone, Indian audiences have been exposed to a diverse spread of queer cinema.

The script of Aligarh (left), a film I worked on, was born out of a desperate need to end the lampooning of gay men in mainstream cinema. While we owe much of our early identity to Riyad Wadia’s Bomgay (1996), Mahesh Dattani’s Mango Souffle (2002) and Sridhar Rangayan’s Gulabi Aaina (2003), we were aware that these films weren’t co-opted into the mainstream. This may be partly because they were ahead of their time, and partly because society perceived them as ‘by’ and ‘for’ the community. BomGay, arguably the first gay film from India, reflected the angst of the repressed urban homosexual, and I remember being too afraid to watch the scenes of sodomy in a movie hall.

Onir’s sensitive My Brother Nikhil (2005; right) was probably the first film about a gay man that captured the attention of the mainstream. The film, starring Sanjay Suri, Purab Kohli and Juhi Chawla, did for Indian gay men, what Fire (1996; left below) — starring Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das — perhaps had done for lesbian women. It paved the way for sensitive LGBTQ representation in Indian cinema. Alas, the doors that opened with My Brother Nikhil were shut tight with big-budget padlocks when Dostana (2007) — Tarun Mansukhani and Karan Johar’s gay parody — hit the theatres.

While there were many who were thankful that Dostana brought the idea of being gay to family audiences, I was severely critical of how the film used the subject only for laughs, and remained homophobic till the very end. Films like Raja Babu, Mast Kalandar, Humshakals and Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kya had also lampooned gay men in the past, the difference (and saving grace) here was that Dostana alluded to the possibility of a mainstream gay couple — well, almost. Karan Johar followed this up with Student Of The Year (2012), where Rishi Kapoor played a closeted school principal who lusts after a male teacher. “There’s so much more to gay men than just being over the top or sexual,” I wrote in a blog after Dostana released.

The biggest challenge with Aligarh was to write a character who, despite being in a sexual relationship with another man, refused to wear the many tags of sexuality. He belonged to a generation where the words ‘gay’ and ‘queer’ did not exist, a place where Professor Siras has to beg society to leave him to define himself. This was neither an activist film, nor did it ask for homosexuals to be treated specially. Instead, it asked for Professor Siras to be seen as a human being — and to award him the same constitutional right to life and privacy as anyone else.

Aligarh’s Siras is a private man, an award-winning poet, a man of letters, a respected academic, but most importantly, he is a man who treats others with respect. Siras never lusts after the handsome young male reporter interviewing him in his bedroom, and always conducts himself with dignity. That the brilliant Manoj Bajpayee broke Bollywood’s longstanding tradition of a mainstream actor refusing to “play gay” adds much value to the film.

Watching Aligarh with my father — who has struggled to make sense of my sexuality — was a surreal experience. He watched it with tears in his eyes, and identified with the loneliness of a senior citizen. I saw that Siras’ sexuality never got in the way of his empathy. At that moment, I knew Aligarh would achieve what it had set out to.

What surprised me though, is that Aligarh did not meet with strong opposition from either society or the censor board. While theatres screening Fire were vandalised in 1996, the CBFC had banned Gulabi Aaina in 2003, calling it ‘vulgar and offensive’, the times seem to have changed when Aligarh ‘came out’ of the censorship closet. While they muted the words ‘gay’ and ‘homosexual’ for its TV telecast, the film hit the cinemas without any major cuts. Even the kiss between Siras and the male rickshaw puller was retained without objection. And besides the city of Aligarh, where its mayor had banned the film, Aligarh ran all over India, for almost four weeks.

Incidentally, the last five years have seen a number of LGBTQ-related films play in cinemas. Shonali Bose’s terrific Margarita With A Straw (2015) saw Kalki Koechlin play a girl with cerebral palsy discovering her bisexuality. Karan Johar and Shakun Batra’s Kapoor & Sons (2016) brought us our first celluloid gay sex symbol — played gracefully by Fawad Khan.

Sudhanshu Saria’s urban gay love story LOEV (2017) focused on the emotional and sexual complexities between two friends; Sridhar Rangayan’s Evening Shadows (2018) told the emotional story of a mother coming to terms with her son’s sexuality; and Shelly Chopra Dhar’s Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Asia Laga (2019) featured Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor as a small-town lesbian girl coming out to her traditional family.

The biggest leap in LGBTQ representation, however, has been in the digital space with Sacred Games (2018) and Made In Heaven (2019). Sacred Games by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane, featured a trans character named Kukoo, played wonderfully by Kubbra Sait. Kukoo is an attractive dancer, a strong, self-respecting woman, in love with the leading character played by Nawazuddin Siddique, and also happens to have a penis. Made In Heaven by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti is a current favourite with gay and straight people alike. It features Arjun Mathur in the lead, playing a Delhi wedding planner who gets in trouble with the law after he is filmed in his bedroom having sex with another man.

While the track bears an uncanny resemblance to Professor Siras’ in Aligarh, it is the writing and treatment that sets it apart. Arjun’s character Karan doesn’t wear his sexuality on his sleeve, yet he is seen as a ‘top’ who indulges in ‘no strings attached’ sexual relationships. And while I am grateful that the show normalises gay sex, Karan’s sexuality is never his identity. He is a bloody good wedding planner, a great friend, and a man who displays an astute sense of right and wrong.

I was privileged to have worked as an editor on Made In Heaven, cutting the episodes of Zoya Akhtar and show-runner Nitya Mehra. I suspect they brought me in because they wanted a gay man at the cutting table, to help them check on Karan’s character. The incredible response to the show is proof that characters like Karan are now seen as a legitimate part of society.

Before they began shooting, I was asked to read the scripts of Made In Heaven and offer feedback. I remember finishing reading them around midnight, and then bursting into tears. When my partner awoke to see me crying, he asked if the story made me sad. I turned to him and said, “No, I’m crying because I am happy. We are finally telling our stories.”

The writer is a National Award and Filmfare Award winning film editor and a Screen Award winning screenwriter. A version of this article appeared in Rainbow Reflections — An Anthology of LGBTQ Narratives in Indian Cinema, published by KASHISH Arts Foundation

Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; July 2, 2017)

After Fawad Khan’s role in Kapoor & Sons and Randeep Hooda’s in Bombay Talkies before that, it may seem like Bollywood has become more receptive to playing homosexuals on screen. However, director Onir staunchly disagrees that much has changed since he made My Brother... Nikhil in 2005. “These films are too few to even count. Bollywood still portrays the LGBT community in the same stereotypical way, and that’s disgusting. It’s so regressive,” says Onir who has no qualms about being open about his sexual preference, and has been fighting to remove the social stigma attached with the LGBT community.

The director, whose Shab with Raveena Tandon will soon release, admits that he went through the same wringer as the makers of Kapoor & Sons did to cast for the role of Rahul Kapoor in the film. Before Fawad was finalised, the part was turned down by as many as six A-listers, including Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, and Farhan Akhtar. “For Purab Kohli’s role in My Brother Nikhil, I had approached a few A-list stars who I don’t wish to name. They blatantly refused to play a gay character on screen. This has happened to me, too, so I know. There are very few actors who would be willing to portray such characters on screen. I have immense respect for them. But that again is a rare quality,” he signs off.