Actors who played homosexuals on screen

Bollywood has been breaking a lot of stereotypes lately. One of the major ones in that regard was giving women some really strong roles instead of mostly being arm candy. Another one was the portrayal of homosexual characters in a film in a tasteful and non-clichéd manner. Over the last decade or so, many actors have portrayed gay on screen, in turn blazing a newer, bolder path for Hindi cinema. So, here is a look at few celebrities who pulled off homosexual characters with great panache:

‘Dostana’ was a great movie not just because of the movie’s brilliant comic timing and setting, but also because of the way it highlighted homosexuality and the taboo surrounding it. Abhishek Bachchan gave one of his career’s best performances as Sam, a male nurse who pretends to be gay with Kunal played by John Abraham to get an apartment. While Abhi’s portrayal of a gay man was a tad caricaturized, it suited the comedic narrative perfectly. In fact, if after ‘Guru’, anyone thinks about the actor’s best films, this one will definitely make it to the top.

Manoj Bajpayee is a delightful actor and he showed his fans just how much more he has in store with ‘Aligarh’. The actor played a mild-mannered homosexual university professor named as Mr Siraj who gets kicked out of the university after his sexual orientation becomes public. Manoj was brilliant in this character as he gave nothing away about his apparent gender preference except for a few subtleties. While it is easy to go overboard with such a sensitive character, the actor remained completely grounded throughout the film and really made us feel for him.

Another subtle portrayal of a gay character was pulled off by Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in ‘Kapoor and Sons’. Fawad played Rahul Kapoor, the only sane voice in the super dysfunctional Kapoor family. Again, he gave nothing away about the homosexual aspect of his character except for some mysterious video calls which he kept making throughout the movie. What was even better was the fact that how it was never explicitly said that he was gay in the film but implied in a crystal clear manner only through dialogues.

It is even rarer to see women take up such roles on screen and it is amazing that veteran actress Shabana Azmi was one of the firsts to do so. Her portrayal of Radha in ‘Fire’ as a suppressed housewife who finds solace in her sister-in-law Sita played by Nandita Das was indeed path-breaking for Indian cinema. The fact that such an explicit Bollywood film came out in 1996 was a miracle in and of itself and thanks to the brilliant performances from the leading ladies, ‘Fire’ became a trailblazer and an internationally acclaimed film.

Kalki Koechlin has never shied away from experimenting with her roles and ‘Margarita with a Straw’ was a film that was right up her alley. She played the role of Laila, a young college student who suffers from cerebral palsy. Although in the film she is not explicitly lesbian, Laila does explore her sexuality by falling for both a boy and a girl. At the very least playing a bisexual character with palsy was no easy task and only someone like Kalki could pull it off with conviction.

‘My Brother Nikhil’, which came a full ten years after ‘Fire’, was a pathbreaker in its own right. The film started an uncomfortable discussion not only about homosexuality in India but also about AIDS which is also considered a big taboo. Other than the titular character Nikhil, Purab Kohli’s portrayal of Sanjay Suri's boyfriend Nigel D’Costa was delightfully refreshing. Purab was really good with his performance in the movie and it earned him films in the future.

Saqib Saleem was another actor who took a bold route early in his career. The actor played a gay man in Karan Johar’s ‘Bombay Talkies’. In fact back when the film came out, his kissing scene with co-star Randeep Hooda who also played a closeted gay man in the film became quite the talking point in B-town. Of course, Saqib showed his range and willingness as an actor with his film and his earnest performance was well appreciated by all.