For long, the plea from the LGBTQIA+ community to storytellers has been this: “Let us tell our stories since our lives are largely different from how cis-gender heterosexuals perceive us.” Over the years, queer narratives in Indian cinema have seen significant steps forward; yet, what is considered queer cinema remains limited, focusing only on a few queer identities, whereas the gender and sexuality spectrum has infinite shades of colour and innumerable complexities. Even popular stories from queer filmmakers have only taken a crack at either gender or sexuality, but hardly the intersection between gender and sexuality, or the many different queer identities.
The state is such that Delhi-based queer actor Vidur Sethi — who starred in Onir’s Pine Cone , which made a splash at the Kashish Pride Film Festival last year — believes that we are far from even reaching the term ‘queer cinema,’ though several encouraging attempts might end up creating a space. Films like Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga and Kaathal: The Core have been affirmative and in line with what the community is about, says Bangalore-based drag artist, Alex Mathew a.k.
a Maya The Drag Queen, while agreeing that a lot needs to be done to break existing stereotypes and to normalise queerness. Pointing out how the limited scale of good indie films from queer filmmakers restricts the themes from reaching larger audiences, Hyderabad-based drag queen and expressionist dancer Patruni Sastry adds that we ne.