When the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather came out with what is now being touted as India’s first ad on the lesbian community titled The Visit-Bold Is Beautiful, the campaign went viral and comments started pouring in instantly. Everyone was suddenly talking about this video and the positives in it for society. Bollywood celebs felt this was the right time to stand up for the lGBT community. Apart from the ad, there are many other ways in which the community is swinging back to focus and how!
But when it comes to breaking the clichéd and doing the extraordinaire in Bollywood, it seems that we have to wait much longer for directors to unshackle themselves and touch upon taboo subjects. The Preeti Gupta starrer Unfreedom will never see the light of day in India because the Censor Board feels that the audience is not ready for a subject highlighting homosexual normalcy.
Unfreedom revolves around the life of a lesbian couple, leela (played by Preeti Gupta) and Sakhi (Bhavani lee) who go through trauma because of their stigmatised relationship. “There are two parallel stories, one is about the terrorist who is on a mission to kill Fareed, a liberal Muslim scholar on tape. The other story is of leela who belongs to a lower middle class family from West Delhi and has grown up in a typical patriarchal set-up. She is trapped within the identity of a homosexual and is subjected to brutality and extreme violence,” Preeti Gupta, lead actress, tells you.
Gupta, who had to go completely nude for this film, feels that taking up this role was a very risky decision. “As an actor, everybody is greedy for challenging roles that showcases human suffering to an extent. leela’s role was a challenging one and as an actor, it was very exciting for me to take it up. I have realised we’ve a lot of power to tell stories which is disturbing but needs to be told,” Gupta talks about her passion.
The actress tells you that it took her a lot of time to get into the skin of the character and mentally prepare herself to portray the trauma which leela went through. “I was nervous about shedding my clothes for the film but went ahead as the plot demanded it. I remember we shot for a rape scene in the film the very day the infamous Delhi Gangrape of 2012 happened. It went totally numb,” she recalls.
There is a lot of research that Gupta had to go through for her film. “I met a lot of lGBT members who shared shocking experiences that they had to deal with. The film is a big eye-opener for me. I have a lot of friends who are homosexuals and now I am able to connect with them on a much deeper level. After doing the film, I understand what it likes to be a lesbian in India. They experience that overwhelming love which not many people would understand it,” the thinking actress from New Delhi, says.
What troubles her more is the violence that such people have to go through to lead a common life. “Being a homosexual, you realise that you are being criminalised for being who you are and loving who you love. It's the deepest violation of human right. Sometimes they undergo corrective rape or psychotic impact to get rid of their sexual status,” Gupta tells you.
A few years ago, Gupta’s friend who belonged to an affluent family, was trapped in his house for a year and was administered antipsychotics drug by his family so that he got out of his sexual habits. He somehow managed to escape. But that was not the end of trauma for him as he and his partner were forced to go through much worse.
It was director Raj Amit Kumar and her mother who gave her a lot of confidence to take up this role and do full justice to it. “I discussed openly with Raj about my fears of being typecast and how people will look at me. Whether I’ll get threats and people would pass judgments on me. Raj was very understanding and told me that I’m going to watch your back so don’t worry. I also found a lot of courage in my mentor Daisaku Ikeda’s writings.
“My mother told me that there are tribals in India for whom it’s customary to be topless and that’s right for them. She said ‘find your own right and wrong. As long as you are convinced about it, you don’t need to be worried about anything else’. My co-actor Dilip Shankar also lent his support,” Gupta says.
She has come a long way from the time they shot the film and admits of being able to conquer her fears finally! “It was a very scary journey within but very rewarding. I feel it has changed me. I have become much braver than I was a few years ago. I have started appreciating people around me much more. I have realised that when you do an act of courage, others around you also manage to find courage within themselves to support you,” Gupta shares.
