Rewriting the queer narrative

Why aren’t trans, queer characters in movies played by real, queer, trans artistes instead of CisHet people? Tanisha Saxena writes about the void in the representation of the LGBTQ community in our movies

Sushant Divgikar aka Rani-Ko-HE-Nur

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil

Sidharth Medepalli

Chitvan Garg

Over the decades, Bollywood filmmakers have delved into the lives of the LGBTQ+ community to decipher the taboo associated with them. From films like Dostana and Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui to Fire and Aligarh, the opulent and melodramatic plots have not been able to represent the true life experiences of people. Filmmaker Shiva Raichandani set out to change the narrative but with gay, trans and non-binary depictions centred in the short film Queer Parivaar. The film revolves around Madhav and Sufi (with Madhav being played by Raichandani) on their wedding day.

Their wedding is interrupted by a mysterious guest who happens to be Madhav’s long-lost grandmother. When the maternal figure lovingly accepts the happy couple, it also reveals family secrets. Revealing her own reason for being ostracised from the family, Madhav finds solace in their grandparent’s queerness. Raichandani has often discussed that a lot of our narratives tend to revolve around sadness, trauma and violence and there’s seldom room for joy, celebration and love. We also don’t talk about or see enough of elder queer south Asians living out and proud.

Indrajeet Ghorpade, the founder and curator of Yes, We Exist, an online LGBTQIA+ advocacy project explained, “While it’s indeed true that representation of older queer people is almost absent from cinema, there are some characters that have been very sensitively written and played — one is late Professor Ramchandra Siras played by Manoj Bajpayee in the movie Aligarh and another is Ramesh Gupta played by Vinay Pathak in Made in Heaven. I believe that the reason behind these two roles being so well crafted and executed is that LGBTQIA+ people were deeply involved in the making of these two projects. Whereas queer representation in many of the projects featuring characters in their 20-30s has been highly problematic — for example, Akshay Kumar’s Laxmmi, and Ayushmann and Vaani’s Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui were heavily criticised by our community for furthering harmful stereotypes about our community. It is better to not have any representation than to have harmful representation, for example, in the movie Student of the Year, Rishi Kapoor played the role of a gay professor and furthered the false and negative stereotype that gay men are perpetually horny and unprofessional. Do we really need such representation?”

They also added that the reason why the stories don’t have elements of joy and celebration is probably that every queer person faces struggle, sadness and pain which is a major part of their life. The importance of intergenerational dialogue is yet another crucial aspect of the queer community. LGBTQIA+ people have historically been erased, so society should make sure that the individuals who paved the way are not forgotten.

Celebrated LGBTQIA+ activist Sushant Divgikar (they/them), opined, “I believe that ‘good’ and ‘adequate’ queer representation is as a whole, catastrophically minimal if not absent! There needs to be a more realistic representation of queer lives and stories. Whether it be with regards to gender or orientation, we cannot keep citing five films for the rest of eternity to reference with regards to queer representation or queer-centric scripts.”

Sushant aka Rani-Ko-HE-Nur added, “We should collectively feel ashamed for not telling real stories and either sensationalising, fetishising or completely demeaning a section of the society which has been made a minority by the way we have handled nuanced conversations around the LGBTQI+ community. For a very long time, and with great sadness, I must add, even today, queer characters in films have been used as comic relief and caricaturish, tertiary characters! Misrepresentation, improper casting and then the rationalising that goes on and on by the makers and casting team for casting CisHet people to play transgender roles, is deplorable and cringe max.” “Although the assumption that the younger generation has taken the spotlight is just a part of the larger picture, we have also trauma and our stories are a narrative of bullying. I think we should have a better and healthy translation from the younger to the older generation. Many facets of LGBT culture are perceived to be structured along age lines, and many aspects of LGBT culture are perceived to be inaccessible to the older generation. Things need to change,” shares Sidharth Medepalli, founder of SocioQueers, a non-profit organisation in Hyderabad. Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, India’s first openly gay royal points out why these films don’t do justice. They say, “It is important to represent the struggle of the community through cinema as it is one of the key elements of any society that connects people and brings the issues to the forefront. However, it is equally important to understand that this representation is incomplete if we don’t see people from the community itself.”

Chitvan Garg, founder of Queer Education India, an online platform offering a larger platform to the queer community believes that just like there’s a need for representation of the queer community on the platforms that they deserve, similarly there’s a simultaneous need for a happy, normal and lovable side being shown about the queer community.