Sushant Divgikar: Portrayal Of LGBTQ+ Community In Bollywood In 90s And Even Till 2000s Was Embarrassing And Disgusting

African American author Earnest J Gaines said, "Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?" For years, Hindi cinema avoided the subject of the LGBTQ+ community and later when this topic was explored, the industry failed to represent it properly. The portrayal of the third gender was either stereotyped or it was just for comic relief and it prevailed in the 90s and even in the 2000s. However, a new generation of filmmakers is reworking the subject. Films and shows like 'Badhaai Do', ‘Sheer Qorma’, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui' and 'Made In Heaven' among others are game changers to a certain extent in the portrayal of LGBTQ persons. Well, we still have to go a long way. 

Sushant Divgikar aka Rani KoHEnur who has been vocal about the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in the country has opened up about the representation of the community in Bollywood. He said, "I definitely believe that the portrayal of our community on the screen has been very embarrassing. In the 90s and even till the 2000s, Bollywood has shown disgusting representation. Now, there are many series or films that have come or going to come on the OTT platforms and in the open category in the theatres also. There is going to be a lot of content which is going to have transgender people played by transgender actors as well which is a great thing."

He added, "It's happening now and slowly it will happen and it will take time because even the makers of the films and series also have to take risks because the thing is that for so long we have been portrayed so badly that it's in their mind that, 'Agar hum agar ye karenge toh shayad hume distributors mana kar denge ya phir producers paise nahi dalenge'. But I think even if one or two people try this to change, then there will be change".

Sushant has always spoken about the lack of representation of trans artists on the screen. When asked if a biopic is made on him, which Bollywood actor he would like to play his character, to which he replied, "Honestly if you ask me, I am still looking for that person. I can't say anyone from the current lot because obviously, I haven't seen anyone who is transgender and a good actor. Because we are not shown that transgender people can also be an actor. If we are fighting so much that transgenders should be given the opportunity to play transgender roles, and if we say that a male or female actor should be in our biopic, how would it sound?"