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ShareThe actor, who plays a gay man in a new film, feels Bollywood has always handled this topic with insensitivity.
What made you take up Onir's film Omar, where you play a gay man?
Playing a gay man was purely incidental. The story parameter is very believable, dark and it rings through even when it's over. There is so much authenticity to the story that I was moved and wanted to experience the beautiful journey that my character goes through.
It is still considered to be a bold decision when an actor decides to do something like this on screen.
I'm looked at by people as someone who does edgy arthouse cinema. I anyway have a limited audience. They have loved me so far but I must confess that I have let them down with my work in Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam. So, when Onir wanted me to play a gay man, I had no apprehensions.
What do you think about the debate on Article 377?
Any law that discriminates between two human beings should be abolished. If sex between two consenting adults is not a crime then consensual sex between two adult men is also not a crime.
Why have Indian films always stereotyped gays and poked fun at them?
We haven't done justice to gays in our cinema except for films like My Brother Nikhil. Film-makers have handled this sensitive topic with ignorance and insensitivity. They have been poked fun at for no reason. Stereotyping in Bollywood has been present for decades. A drunken man was always Keshto Mukherjee. People with oriental features were always fast girls. It shows how juvenile our thinking is.
