Promotion

Love stories are meant for everyone. In the bedtime stories we heard as children, it was completely okay for a princess to fall in love with a frog or a beast even, but never with another princess.

When these tales were translated on screen, the stories were somehow still restricted to the heterosexual realm. But Roopa Rao’s latest web series about same-sex love, The Other Love Story, is about to change that.

The Other Love Story, which is slotted for release next week, is exciting for multiple reasons. First, it tells the tale of two women falling in love at a time when homophobia was still rampant in India. Secondly, it is set in the 90s, an era before the Internet and mobile phones took over our lives, when we still had to rely on love letters and landlines to exchange sweet nothings. Finally, Roopa was able to raise money for the film through crowd funding, which shows the appetite that Indian audiences have for offbeat narratives.

The popularity of YouTube has lead to a certain democratisation of media, which has helped filmmakers address issues that are traditionally considered taboo. Web-series often take a step back from elaborate sets and melodrama to address pressing topics that need to be discussed. The Other Love Story is not the first Indian web series that discusses homosexual love in a serious manner. In April, a new web-series titled All About Section 377 was lauded for its representation of the LGBT community in mainstream media.

Promotion

Roopa claims she was inspired to make this series because she was frustrated with the fact that in mainstream media lesbianism has become synonymous with porn.

The series traces the love story between two neighbours, Adhya and Aanchal, who live in Bengaluru. The dialogues are in English, Hindi and Kannada. Roopa told Deccan Chronicle, “Today one can go online and find so much information and groups that support them, but back in the ’90s there was nothing. This story follows how two neighbours meet, feel something and slowly find the courage to work on their feelings.”

Watch the teaser here!

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