‘I did not want to slot Mansi as butch or femme’

After a thriving modelling career of over two decades, Mumbai-based Diandra Soares is now playing an urban, closeted lesbian in the web series Love, Life and Screw Ups. Directed and written by Kapil Kaustub Sharma, the series was recently launched on YouTube.

Soares said it was important to her that she didn’t trivialise homosexuality. “I have so many friends from the community,” says the 37-year-old. “It would be an injustice if I played a stereotypical role.”

Soares plays Mansi, an otherwise bold woman, who is made vulnerable on account of her closeted sexuality and social pressure to get married to a man. “I didn’t want to slot Mansi as ‘butch’ or ‘femme’,” says Soares, who took the opportunity to separate gender from sexuality, and break the stereotype that lesbians are masculine and rude. “Not all gay men are limp-wristed and not all lesbians are boyish,” she says.

“I spoke to my friends about their coming out stories; it helped me prepare when my character comes out to her family,” explains Diandra. 

Theatre stalwart Dolly Thakore plays Mansi’s mother and is portrayed as an LGBT rights activist. But when Mansi comes out, she is consumed by anxiety. “No matter how much our parents support us, they still worry about log kya kahenge? Mansi’s mother is no different,” says Soares.