Bolllywood breaking down barriers

Bollywood films have always been remarkably chaste by Western standards — traditionally, a couple’s passionate embrace would be replaced by a song and dance routine.

It’s a groundbreaking leap, then, that Indian cinema now has its first gay love story, Dunno Y…Na Jaane Kyun, a romance being billed as the ‘Bollywood Brokeback Mountain’.

The film’s stars, Kapil Sharma and Yuvraaj Parashar, spoke to Sydney Star Observer while in the city to attend the opening night screening of the film at the Satrang South Asian Queer Film Festival.

Sharma akcnowledged that Indian cinema is catching up fast with Hollywood when it comes to portraying relationships, both gay and straight.

“I think when we started the movie, it was a major thing — doing a gay love story with intimate love scenes. But recently, it seems to be changing and it’s less of an issue,” he said.

“It’s the first proper gay love story for India.”

Sharma, who also wrote the film (his brother is the director — it’s a family affair), plays a gigolo and wannabe model actor who enters into a relationship with a married, closeted bisexual man, played by Parashar.

Sharma said initially he had no intention of playing the lead.

“I didn’t think I’d be playing the main role. But when we approached actors, they all had apprehensions to play gay. If they agreed, they wanted the script to be changed and refused to do intimate scenes. In the end, I decided to play the role myself,” he smiled.

Both actors admitted to some trepidation when it came time to shoot the love scenes — somewhat chaste for Western audiences used to the likes of Queer As Folk and Shortbus, but explicit by Indian standards.

“I definitely felt self-conscious. But I knew if I was doing this role, I’d have to do complete justice to it. And in the end, I think the gay kiss is one of the best scenes in the film,” Sharma said.

“And it’s a first for Bollywood. I feel very confident now — we’re getting such a good response,” Parashar added.

Gay audiences in India were reticent to endorse the film before seeing it, fearful the characters would be a less-than-positive portrayal of gay life.

Sharma said they’d since gotten the seal of approval from several gay groups.

“The reaction has been very positive. Straight women in particular have really connected to the gay storyline, it seems to move them.

“But of course because people haven’t seen this sort of thing before, often when the first kiss happens there’s a lot of giggling in the audience. As the movie progresses though, everyone connects with these characters.”

info: Dunno Y…Na Jaane Kyun will have an encore screening at 4.15pm on Saturday, September 25 at UTS Broadway. Tickets via www.trikone.org.au