Hansal Mehta wants to do Gujarati film despite no backer for gay story

Director Hansal Mehta says that he wants to make a Gujarati film, even though his story for a Gujarati film on a gay couple's love story did not get the backing of a producer.

"I have a serious interest in it. I'm a Gujarati and I want to make a Gujarati film. Several years ago, I had also written a Gujarati film which was on a gay couple; it was a love story of two men. However, Gujarati films anyway don't get producers. So this film would have obviously not got a producer," he said at the Kashish Film Festival to a query about making a regional film.

Does he still want to make that film? "I have plans but I don't have the funds to make it," he said.

Mehta's recent film "Aligarh" was based on a real-life story of a professor who was a homosexual and how the shooting of his intimate act with a man created problems in his life.

About the film being tagged as a "gay film", he said: "I'm proud that it is tagged as a gay film, among other names. Some of my distributors were apprehensive about it."

Mehta, who has made films such as "Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!!" and "Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai?", which were about male bonding, quipped: "All my films have been gay films. People have always found this sort of a homo-erotic thing."

About "Dil Pe..." he said: "People at that time thought it was a gay film as there was male bonding, there were three guys, Manoj Bajpayee, Aditya Srivastava, and Saurabh Shukla, who were riding triple seat on a really small scooter."

Regarding portrayal of the LGBT community in films today, Mehta said: "We're also coming of age, we had made 'Dostana' and now we made 'Kapoor & Sons'... it's a huge leap.

"This year has been particularly encouraging, we had 'Aligarh', which dealt with the humanist element rather than treating it as an LGBT subject. You had 'Kapoor & Sons' which handled the entire gay issue in a very mature and sweet manner and there is another film 'Dear Dad' which I have not seen but have heard that it has dealt in a very mature way."

Hansal's next film "Simran" stars Kangana Ranaut.

--IANS

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