Take a look at any “mass comedy blockbuster” or any mindless entertainment Bollywood flick and you’ll see that Bollywood still has a formula when it comes to portraying certain things. Despite the handful of path-breaking films we are seeing today, there are still certain sins the Bollywood mainstream films are guilty of. Especially the way in which they portray the LGBT community, if at all they are portrayed. Here are 10 absurd ways in which Bollywood portrays the LGBT community:
1. They are always at the receiving end of highly offensive homophobic jokes which are often made by the hero of the film.
2. One common theme in ‘comedy movies’ is an onlooker mistaking the two heroes for being gay and getting severely scandalized.
3. If a gay character is included in a Bollywood movie, it’ll always be in the role of an overly-horny gay guy lusting for the hero despite the hero’s rebukes.
4. There has not been a single Bollywood movie where a leading actor has convincingly portrayed the role of a gay man! They have played the role of straight men pretending to be gay of course because that’s so hilarious right?
5. Progressive movies like ‘Fire’, ‘My Brother Nikhil’ etc. portrayed the LGBT community in a very sensitive, realistic light.
Of course, these movies shocked everyone & were surrounded by controversies. Movies like Page 3, Fashion, Bombay Talkies tried reviving the realism in the portrayal but we still fall back on crass stereotypes, time & again.
6. Every single gay character portrayed in a mainstream Bollywood movie will sound and talk exactly the same way, using a lot of double meaning dick jokes.
7. The LGBT community is always portrayed as something abnormal and ridicule-worthy in Bollywood movies. We’re yet to see a movie where they are portrayed as characters that have substance to them.
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8. Most Bollywood movies add to the alienation of the LGBT community by having the movie’s lead characters say things like “yeh toh woh hai”.
9. You’ll never see an LGBT character portrayed in a Bollywood movie leading a simple, normal life going about his business. The person will always be decked up and on the streets doing nothing except hit on random people.
10. They are never portrayed as an accepted member of the society. They are always shown as outcasts and freaks who are only there in the movie for crude comic relief.
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