Cinema is considered as the biggest influential medium throughout the world. India cinema being the largest film producing country in the world is not only viewed within the nation, but also among the mounting network of Diasporas communities across the world. In today’s world, cinema is the mainstream art form that reaches the maximum number of population. Films that interpret reality are of utmost importance. But this Indian film industry had failed to understand and represent the queer community from a long time until the recent gay rights movements.
It has been observed that it took 40 years to even get the idea to represent the LGBTQ+ community in the cinema. Since then, the community has been facing objectification, became victims of satires. The LGBTQ+ community are usually used to play the roles that are weird and eccentric. All the queer characters are shown as comedians, who are treated in an offensive manner; criminals, beggars, prostitutes or even molesters. As we say that the cinema is the biggest influential medium, these kinds of representation misled the public to believe that it is the real lifestyle of the LGBTQ+ community and made them stereotypical. Many people hate queer people and does not even consider them as a fellow human being. Even the newest generation feel the same because of the misrepresentation in the cinema and social media.
This kind of false representation can be observed in any (language) industry for example – Kal Ho Na Ho, Dostana, Girlfriend, Humshakals, Pilla Zamindar, Ala modalaindi, Chirutha, Raja babu , Randu penkuttikal etc. The above mentioned movies had shown gays as either comedians or bad people of the society who do not have any kind of self-respect or emotions. The worst part is that the superstars like Amitab Bachan, Saif Ali khan, etc, took part in these movies.
Since the last 2 decades only, there have effectively presented the plight of sexual minorities in the silver screen to the Indian audiences and have been able to bring the tabooed theme to the sphere of beam and presence within a social set up. We can agree that with the legal barrier like section 377, family’s social stigmas, etc, it won’t be an overnight change and hence it is still being in process. Movies like Kapoor and sons, Margarita with a straw, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Super Delux, Awe!, Paava Kadaigal, etc are show the reality of the LGBTQ+ community and slowly helping to remove the stereotypes among the people. Mostly in this era, queer people are getting the most attraction in every field like sports, entertainment, academics, etc. But it is not sufficient to bring the equality, and protect their sexual rights. Many people of queer community are taking part in various kinds of social media activities to aware the young generation and make sure that no one misleads them.
This misrepresentation effects the queer community internally. They suffer from depression, sexual dilemma, anger. They feel alienated as the people are influenced by the false portrayal in cinema and separates the LGBTQ+ community. It leads to loneliness. The satirical and unrealistic representation of the queer community has attached a stigma related to their identity. Heterosexuality is always shown as the only sexual alteration and homosexuality is shown as a sin. But there are some movies that showed justification in portraying the emotional complexities of the queer community in a sensible manner. The role of cinema should not be confined to entertainment. It should also focus on development. So, cinema should portray this relationship along with the emotional complexities in a welcoming manner rather than using them as objects to gain audience attention.