Fridae

The following is an extract of a report published by The Times (UK). Click on the link below to read the article in full.

Bollywood is the world’s most prolific film industry, but for decades one plotline has dared not speak its name. Now the sub-continent’s ultimate cinematic taboo is to be broached, with the first depiction of a gay kiss. 

Months before its release, Dunno Y . . . Na Jaane Kyun has already been called India’s answer to Brokeback Mountain. The film, which promises to break new ground by telling the story of a serious, and explicitly sexual, relationship between two Indian men, comes months after a law outlawing homosexuality was overturned in the Delhi High Court.

It will star Kapil Sharma, an actor in his debut role who plays an aspiring gay model forced to “compromise his morals” to further his career. Its director, Anil Sharma, is one of the best known in Bollywood whose most recent offering, Veer, was a macho action adventure. 

Little more is known of the project, which is due to premiere in May, but promotional posters showing two semi-naked young men in a passionate embrace have already fuelled controversy. 

Gay activists say that they are braced for a backlash from religious and political conservatives, many of whom opposed the repeal of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code — a law first framed under British rule that bracketed homosexuality with bestiality and paedophilia as crimes “against nature”, punishable by up to ten years in prison.

The decriminalisation of homosexuality is awaiting final approval by the Supreme Court, which is expected to be given after the Government backed the move last year.