Introduction
In today’s age onscreen entertainment has gained strong influence in shaping mind sets and approach of people towards things and has even helped in bringing in social change, forming opinions and influencing people to change their perceptions in certain cases bring therein a positive effect in the constantly evolving society.
LGBTQ and Laws in India
Originally the struggle did start around year 2002 when Naz Foundation filed a public interest litigation for decriminalising of Section 377 the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (“IPC”)which criminalized homosexuality was included by the British in colonial India in 1861 which was struck down by the Delhi High Court vide Judgment dated 2ndJuly 2009[1]as being unconstitutional to the extent that it criminalised consensual non-vaginal sexual acts between adults thereby violating fundamental rights of an individual under Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution of India, 1950 i.e. right to equality before the law, freedom from discrimination and to life and personal liberty. The High Court did not strike down Section 377 completely and the section was in effect where the matters pertained to non-consensual or non-vaginal intercourse or in the cases of intercourse with minors, but an appeal filed by Suresh Kumar Koushal and others before the Supreme Court of India and vide Judgement dated 11thDecember 2013[2], the Supreme Court of India upheld the constitutionality of Section 377 of the IPC. Even the review petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court of India on 28thJanuary 2014, which was filed by Central Government, Naz Foundation and several others, against the Judgment dated 11thDecember 2013 in respect of Section 377 of IPC.
Later on 24th August 2017[3], India\’s Supreme Court gave the country\’s LGBTQ community the freedom to safely express their sexual orientation which is protected under the Right to Privacy under the Constitution of India, 1950, but Section 377 of IPC remained in effect till 6thSeptember 2018. However vide passing a landmark judgement in the case of Navtej Singh Jauhar vs. Union of India on 6thSeptember 2018[4]consensual gay sex was legalised by the Supreme Court of India thereby decriminalizing Section 377 of the IPC, proclaiming sexual orientation to be natural, and the right to love, privacy, dignity, and equality to be integral to an individual. The judgement also directed that the media to be pluralistic and non-discriminatory in respect of issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. However, the apex court upheld that other aspects of section 377 of IPC such as criminalising the acts of unnatural sex which involve minors and animals, which rightfully continues to remain in force till date. However, till date the marriage between people of same sex has not been legalised yet in India and therefore there won’t be any legal recognition / registration of such marriage performed between people of same sex even if such marriage has been performed in India following all the rituals and customs, except may be in the case where such party or any one among them is a citizen of any other country which legally recognises marriage in between people of same sex and gets their marriage registered in that country where such marriages are granted legal recognition. There are certain further laws proposed for rights of sexual minorities but they have not been passed and/or implemented so far in Indian legal system.
Representation/Portrayal of LGBTQ in forms of Onscreen Entertainment in India :
In the Indian the representations of sexual minorities by the onscreen entertainment mediums has mostly either been stereotypical wherein they are meant to raise humour quotient by cross-dress or are showcased to hit upon random people and/or or in case of a mature/close to real representation of such sexual minorities have been intermittently politicized or became a subject to debates and controversy.
Movies:
Films like ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’, ‘Housefull’, ‘Bol Bacchan’ and ‘Dostana’ represent mock-homosexual characters whereas in films like ‘Style’, ‘Golmaal Returns’, ‘Masti’, ‘Student of the Year’, etc., sexual minorities are just portrayed in certain scenes for providing some comical relief. Whereas films like ‘Sadak’, ‘Murder 2’, ‘I’ and few other films portray characters belonging to sexual minority in the role of antagonist.
In the backdrop of protests that took place in the past few years for providing rights to sexual minorities in India and evolving of the content over past few years there have been attempts to portray the fear, struggle, constraints and insecurity of sexual minorities by film-makers/directors by portraying such characters in a normal/close to real way in the plot in films like ‘Heroine’, ‘Kapoor& Sons’, ‘My Bother Nikhil’, ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ etc. but still it is very less and far in between.
The films featuring queer centric themes that represented the anguish, ordeal and pain of coming out and living with its disconcerting complexities, but such content has not been successful commercially and/or received limited response and is mostly treated like festival or art films. A film named ‘Fire’ which was creation of an overseas film maker features two sisters-in-law in an Indian society, in which their husbands dictate their lives completely ignoring their needs, hence, women find their desires fulfilled in each other and leave the house to be together. The theme of the film was completely unfitting to Indian masses back then in 90s when it released and also the names of the protagonist women in the film were “Radha” and ‘Sita” which are the names of widely worshipped deities in India, hence for all such factors the movie faced demonstrations from people and few political parties and was unofficially banned in many parts of the country. In 2015 movie ‘Aligarh’ which was a story based on a true incident highlighted the severely embedded predispositions of the society at large and exposes the lobbied environment. The film was also appreciated at Film festivals though it was not a commercial success in India but the film was praised by many in India and was overall well-received by masses. In 2019 ‘Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga’ was film that depicted emotional and psychological turmoil and loneliness of a girl having an alternative sexuality and her fear to reveal about her sexual orientation to her loving but traditional father. The film’s portrayal of a lesbian couple was portrayed in a very sensitive and mature and family friendly manner and was well received by masses in general and didn’t face any protest. In 2020 ‘Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan’ was a film that depicted relationship between two men and opposition of the family in accepting such relationship. The film was widely appreciated in India.
Web Series and TV Series:
In the web series ‘Four More Shots Please’ and ‘Made in Heaven’ and few others have attempted to depict sexual minorities and there issues pertaining to non-acceptance by parents, emotional differences with their partner, tenancy issues and threats faced by them in the city etc. have been treated close to real and very much like people in general. In “Four More Shots Please” even the idea of marriage between the people of same sex has been explored in legal context. However, most of the web series contain certain scenes and language which may not be at all suitable for family audiences in India and hence such web series are mostly consumed by young generation in the comfort of their personal space on their smart phones.
Even though the television serials in India which are mostly viewed by family audience in India did not explore the sexual minorities in the plot of their daily operas but one such attempt was made by a daily soap named ‘Maryada..Lekin Kab Tak’ wherein one of the main characters of the family portrayed in the daily soap was portrayed as gay who has got married under the pressure of his family to a village girl who later supports him to free all the chuckles and lead his life with the person he loved but this was just a subplot in the otherwise woman empowerment oriented series and may have gone unnoticed in its overall plot.
Conclusion
Many significant contents have dealt with issues and portrayals of sexual minorities in Indian entertainment mediums even though few may have been misleading or even problematic as a result of which to conclude, the art to define characters and/or tell such tales on the screen needs to become more mainstream and mature/real and progressive which can only be achieved through more mature scripts and wise film making which connects with the audience for long giving the right message and also in view of which there require to be enforced guidelines in respect of the same to prevent any misleading content in order to be more understanding and sensitive human beings willing to bring in a development, positivity and unity among the people in general.
Written By: Vaidehi Harshad Samant
Advocate, Mumbai
[1]https://indiankanoon.org/doc/100472805/
[2]https://indiankanoon.org/doc/58730926/
[3]https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/right-to-privacy-verdict-a-fundamental-shift-on-gay-rights/articleshow/60215853.cms
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