Homophobia/Transphobia in Bollywood

There are so many crude homophobic, transphobic scenes in Bollywood movies. I want to know whether there is still an audience to such regressive cinema.

Its a slow process, but yeah I do think BW is making an effort of getting rid of homo/trans phobia.

However even if scenes aren't outright homophobic. In BW there seems to be an assumption that most gays and lesbians are loose and would hook up with anyone.

I was watching dostana yesterday and was terribly pissed to see Priyanka's character trying to pimp out Abhishek and John's character to her gay boss, in order to gain advantage at work. Like wtf. And people back then took it as fun and laughed along. That's just not done IMO.🤢

Then there is a scene in Befikre where Ranveer after finding out his roommates are a lesbian couple, goes into a fantasy of having a threesome with them.

BW better not repeat such scenes in the future.😡

I think Magadheera had some disgusting homophobic scene... the hero assaults a gay guy hitting on him or something like that.

Never felt that way personally. One's sexuality doesn't make anyone a lesser person.

But is there an audience for it? Yes there is. India is largely homophobic and transphobic and its all casual. I'd say other than urban spaces where there is ample awareness and gay people know their rights, India likes its 'bullying homophobic heroes' who make fun of gay men who verbally dismiss them in some scene for comic effect. The tropes still exist : People from the community esp gay men are shown are as promiscuous, hitting on anything that moves making the hero uncomfortable.

The laugh still comes.

We can see that from responses to plenty of men on YouTube who use queerphobic language but they still get their views and comments take those so called 'jokes' further. They represent the section who still use the slurs like 'meetha' and 'chhakka'.

Digital content is making more of a progress to dismantle LGBTQ+ stereotypes/homophobia than mainstream Bolly movies.

Made In Heaven showed such a moving love story so sensitively. Hopefully mainstream Bolly movies can follow that example.

Not defending Bollywood BUT I have seen plenty of Hollywood movies with homophobic & transphobic dialogues. And I'm talking about films released that released in like 2007 or 2008, not 90s or beyond.

So, homophobia and transphobia is definitely not just a Bollywood thing.

But having said that, Bollwood is definitely a lot to blame for stereotyping LGBT characters. Even mainstream films like Kal Ho Na Ho and Dostana made fun of homosexuals and inspired a whole generation of Indian youth to make fun of gay people.👏 Good work, KJO!

But there are several exceptions

Tammana came out in 1997 and it was a damn good film. Paresh Rawal as a transgender/intersex did full justice to the character. Films like those really make you think that HUMANITY is above EVERYTHING.

Sacred Games (though not BW) had a transgender love-interest, and the character was a full-fledged character NOT a caricature. The portrayal was also not derogatory. It's a shame that the audience made a meme out of her character.

Made In Heaven is another good example.

transgender community is the most targeted much more than Homosexual community

Not just in movies, but real life too..

Its amazing how just because some organs are different, they are ostracized and we still do nothing about it.

Kjo has made fun of gay characters in all of his movies when out of all the people he should've been the one to give them simple and authentic characters.

Fawad khan in kapoor and sons was the only sane portrayal of a gay character in Bollywood till now .

I want to know the reasoning/logic of the people who voted YES in the poll...😳..Please oblige.

desi society is in general racist, transphobic/homophobic, misogynistic..

the kind of problematic jokes are passed by comedians and shown in indian comedies are appalling..

and defence of this is always "oh the world is too PC now...lighten up.. can't even make jokes anymore...don't take it seriously.. oh no western influence "..

Originally posted by: blue-ice.1

I want to know the reasoning/logic of the people who voted YES in the poll...😳..Please oblige.

Honestly, they don't deserve to explain their 'reasoning'. They are too chicken to anyway.

The only people I can understand being homophobic are people who have no reach to awareness campaigns and are bound by social conditioning, religious diktats that have found no way to reverse itself. Esp grandparents ka gen. Cause that ship has sailed. Even really older parents. Social conditioning at that age is hard to reverse ( but awareness can change even that gen) Literally anyone who doesn't have resources to think otherwise most likely would be homophobic/transphobic. And that's understandable because that mindset has a chance of changing.

But I don't think anyone here belongs to that demographic lol so whoever here thinks like that in today's day and age even after all the awareness campaigns and the likes... And particularly knowing what homophobia and transphobia can do to the physical well-being and mental health of the community, is one shit excuse of a human being. To think less of a person because of their sexuality is one of the lowest of lows.