A foot-tapping sequin-doused disco number, a hot-pink wedding, and a kiss between the two male leads: Bollywood’s latest release, billed as India’s first gay romcom, is making no bones about its subject matter.
Released last week, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (Be Extra Careful About Marriage) stars popular actor Ayushmann Khurrana as a young man bucking social disapproval to be with his beloved—a time-tested Bollywood plotline, except the object of his affection is male.
India’s Supreme Court scrapped a colonial-era ban on homosexuality in 2018. But the LGBT community remains on the fringes of society—many face discrimination or even violence, including at the hands of their own families, and their stories are rarely celebrated in mainstream cinema.
Until now.