No more macho, Heros play gay characters

Mumbai: Bollywood has come a long way from its macho heroes to male leads who are ready to play gay characters and though there's still a long way to go before they catch up with Hollywood, the times, they are a changing.

Dostana even with its spoofy undertones may have brought homosexuality under the spotlight but there have been films earlier that have tried to deal with this subject with much sensitivity.

Filmmaker Onir's debut film My Brother Nikhil dealt with the subject of AIDS with Sanjay Suri in the lead who was gay and in a relationship and while the film may not have done too well at the box office the critical acclaim that it received left even the director pleasantly surprised.....

"The way it has been appreciated all over was a lot for me to get, I didn’t expect that much" says filmmaker Onir.

“It is good be at least some icon, but I think what worked for the film was that it dealt subject in a very sensitive way" says actor Sanhay Suri.

One of the first films that brought out same sex love was Deepa Mehta's controversial Fire. There have been others like Girlfriend which were purely made for titillation.

Madhur Bhandarkar too has been one of those directors who have made no qualms in bringing gay relationships on to the big screen in films like Page 3 and Fashion he has often been criticised for stereotyping gays and portraying them in a homophobic manner.

But while homosexuality has just managed to get a commercial seat in Bollywood the West has already created some masterpieces on the theme. Oscar favourite Brokeback Mountain with Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal playing a gay couple became a cult film with its strong portrayal of complex emotions.

"Even in the intimate scenes we had to be careful that we don’t cross a certain line" says actor, Jake Gyllenhaal.

Australian film The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of Deserts revolves around three drag queens a humorous bitchy road movie that goes down as a favourite with many.

Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington's 1993 hit Philadelphia portrays Tom Hanks as gay lawyer living with AIDS and has been an all time favourite and also Leonardo Dicaprio's Total Eclipse brought to light the untold love story between a famous poet and a boy genius.

Well with this new trend back home, Bollywood it seems is slowly but surely coming out of the closet.

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