¡®Badhaai Do Was A Huge Step¡¯: Activist Anjali Gopalan On Queer Representation In Indian Cinema

¡°Let¡¯s not be impatient. Things will happen, maybe at a slower pace but there¡¯s some hope.¡±

Anjali Gopalan is a human rights activist listed in TIME Magazine¡¯s 100 Most Influential People in the World (2012). Anjali is a veteran in advocating for the rights of people diagnosed with HIV/AIDs and the LGBTQIA+ community. She set up the Naz Foundation in 1994 alongside India¡¯s 1st HIV clinic.

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In an exclusive conversation with Indiatimes, Anjali reflected on her life and career and shared some bits of her life.

We asked Anjali to take us back to how she made her way towards activism and she said, ¡°When I look back, then my activism began when I was working in the US and gained a better understanding of prevalent issues like HIV prevention and human rights. This was in the 80s when the government¡¯s and hospitals¡¯ response was terrible towards gay cancer. All of this made me look at life differently and that¡¯s how it all started.¡±

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For nearly a decade, Anjali worked for community-based organizations in New York City and that made us ask her, what¡¯s common in the US and India.

¡°Hatred. It¡¯s not uncommon in any country but it's rooted in families across the world. They want to take their kids to conversion therapy and find it difficult to accept the sexuality of their child. Parents of queer kids must also be finding it difficult as it¡¯s not the normal way to treat somebody you love but they are used to a certain structure of society for ages to let go of it.¡±

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When quipped if the audience¡¯s reception has changed over the years then Anjali nodded with agreement and named ¡®Badhaai Do¡¯ as an example.

¡°It was a well-made film. Unlike other films, they didn¡¯t show a gay character who is Bechara or just an effeminate individual. Rajkummar was a cop and that just broke all notions of how gay men are and what they can do. Badhaai Do was indeed a huge step which sensitively conveyed the life story of queer individuals."

Remember Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao¡¯s 2016 film Aligarh?

Actor Nutan Surya played the role of Anjali in that film. Recalling the production of that film, Gopalan shared, ¡°It was a brilliant film. The filmmakers spent a lot of time with us to research and understand the facts. And look how beautiful the film came out to be¡±. Aligarh was written by another queer filmmaker Apurva Asrani.

The Supreme Court of India recently concluded the hearing of several petitions to legalise same-sex marriage in India.

Sharing her thoughts on the same Anjali shared with us, ¡°I¡¯m not someone who really believes in the institution of marriage but I strongly believe that it¡¯s very important for people who want to get married. As a culture, there are no spaces for single people in this society so civil rights that safeguard heterosexuals must equally protect every individual irrespective of anything.¡±

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"If the constitution doesn¡¯t say that any rights are particular to just heterosexuals then on what basis is the community being denied of their basic human rights?¡±

Why is loving as a queer individual in India not easy?¡¯

Anjali shared, ¡°This is a society which is so hostile that it doesn¡¯t allow you to verbalise yourself. It¡¯s hard to proclaim your love because current laws don¡¯t give you breathing space to own our love and partnership. Parallelly, it¡¯s not easy to judge somebody who cannot come out. Several societal strings stick a few people to their closet.¡±

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We asked Anjali if she was okay with cis-heterosexual people playing queer characters on-screen then she said, ¡°I see no harm in it. If there¡¯s a good story to tell and a good actor is doing it then it¡¯s perfectly alright. They are just artists portraying a role, that¡¯s it. Let¡¯s sideline the negative layers.¡±

Anjali further shared how each one of us can take a small step and that can affect the society at large.

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¡°I remember walking into a thana in Delhi and telling the officials that I want to train the cops about community sensitization. You won¡¯t believe it soon after that, we started doing training programmes across the different police stations within our reach. And that¡¯s how we created our space with a hope to bring about change.¡±

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