How courageous!

I'm back to blogging after a long time, because I have once again found a few things to write about. This extraordinary interview came to my notice recently. Published in The Times of India, Calcutta edition on 3 September 2008, this is an interview with starlet Anuj Swahney. It is fantastic how homophobic we can be even when we try to be gloriously liberated! Of all the things that Swahney talks about in the admittedly otherwise-insipid interview the newspaper thought it best to headline the story with a throw-away comment by our two-bit actor that he is open (mind, meet gutter!) to playing a gay character. Like that is the final frontier! The ultimate taboo! Child-molester? No problem! Drug-dealer? No big deal! Terrorist? Why not? Serial killer? Sure! Gay? Ermmmmm..... Let me get back to you about it!! Anuj may not be aware that at the last count at least ten two-bit actors like him have already played gay characters and the list is set to grow with Bobby Deol playing one in the film Dostana whose music will be released at the end of this month and which itself will (ahem!) open nationwide on 14th November! Soon to be released in the latest Madhur Bhandarkar film Fashion where homosexuality features more prominently than it has hitherto done in his previous homo-friendly movies such as Page 3 and other movies such as Rules - Love ka Superhit Formula, Life in a Metro, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd to name just three. While actors in other countries, even other Asian ones, don't think twice before signing on for a gay part, in India our actors have to take a deep breath, weigh seriously the enormous damage their (often-non-existent) careers will suffer, before signing on the pink dotted line! Anuj, - forget about Western films - I suggest you watch an Indonesian film called Arisan, or a Taiwanese film calld Formula 17 or a Filipino film called Duda (Doubt) and realize that it really shouldn't be a big deal even for an Asian guy to play gay! What is even more surprising about Anuj's line is that it is coming from someone who has been trained at the Barry John Acting Studio. Barry John, in one of his productions of Shakespeare, had turned a pair of heterosexual lovers into homosexual ones (Othello: A Play in Black and White). So, good luck with your career, Anuj and I look forward to seeing you play a gay character! You would be so brave!!