India festival to show homophobia film Published duration 30 October 2015

image copyright Jitender Gupta/Outlook magazine image caption The film is based on the story of university teacher Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras

A Bollywood film on attitudes towards homosexuals in India will be shown in the country for the first time.

Aligarh is based on a true story of a teacher who was suspended from his position in 2010 after a video of him having sex with another man surfaced.

He was found dead in his apartment two months later. Police suspected suicide, and the case was eventually dropped.

A colonial era law criminalises homosexuality in India.

Although the law has rarely - if ever - been used to prosecute anyone for consensual sex, it has often been used by police to harass homosexuals.

Also, in deeply conservative India, homosexuality is a taboo, and many people still regard same-sex relationships to be illegitimate.

'Prejudices'

Aligarh, which stars Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao, will be shown at the Mumbai Film Festival on Friday evening after showings in London and Busan in South Korea.

"The film deals with a human story about a man isolated by his peers for a choice that should have been his own," the film's director, Hansal Mehta told the AFP news agency.

"I hope Aligarh will poke people's conscience and make them look at their own prejudices," he added.

The film tells the story of Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, then 64, who was teaching at Aligarh Muslim University in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

A TV news crew allegedly carried out a sting operation and filmed him having sex with a rickshaw puller.

image copyright AFP image caption Hansal Mehta (right) with actor Manoj Bajpayee on the set of Aligarh

There were media reports that the university had a hand in the sting in February 2010, an allegation which it denied. Siras was found dead in his apartment in April.

Police arrested a number of men, and dropped the case after not finding enough evidence to prosecute them.

Bollywood films often make fun of gay characters, and many expect Aligarh will be a rare exception.

"Very few films tackle the subject head on," the writer and editor of the film, Apurva Asrani, told AFP.

"Either they pussyfoot around it, insinuating a character's sexuality but never quite confronting it, or they make a mockery of it," he added.

The film must be cleared by India's censor board before it can be released in theatres.

The court overturned a landmark 2009 Delhi High Court ruling, which decriminalised gay sex.

"The law was actually in favour of same sex. In spite of this, a 64-year-old scholar was harangued and shamed till his death," said Mr Asrani.

"Can you imagine the state of Siras in today's context? Where does a man go for justice? And what of all those people who came out in 2009? Can they go back into hiding now?".

Indian laws say same-sex relationship is an "unnatural offence" which is punishable by a 10-year jail term.

Related Topics India

Mumbai

Bollywood

LGBT