From ridicule to empathy: Shabana Azmi charts portrayal of LGBTQ community in cinema

Veteran actor Shabana Azmi is glad that the discourse around the LGBTQ community is a lot more open today, with even mainstream cinema portraying them with compassion.

Azmi starred in filmmaker Deepa Mehta's acclaimed "Fire" (1996), about a lonely woman in love with her sister-in-law, played by Nandita Das.

The actor recalls how the trio were asked if they were lesbians at the London Film Festival because they had done "Fire".

"Today, it's fine. I must give credit to the mainstream industry that instead of making them a subject of ridicule, they are watching them with empathy," she says.

In an interview with PTI, the actor says she was aware during "Fire" that some would be "outraged, moved and shocked", but at least a dialogue would start in a society, which was so afraid of the "other" that it hated them and was quick to stigmatise.

"Starting a dialogue is the maximum you can do with a part or a film. I felt if the audience could empathise with the two sister-in-laws, then they would be able to extend that empathy to the other race, nation, colour, the other choice. You demonise the other because you don't know them."
"The notion of family is changing today. It's no longer the heterogeneous family of man woman child. Now two women have children, two men are having children, single mothers are having children. So the notion of family is expanding, which is healthy."
"I see so many people who have had troubles accepting this of their children but finally they come around because the mother's love wins."
"Anybody, who strikes out as looking different, who's more visible, the society in any case finds it difficult to adjust to the LGBTQ community. Anyone who wants to look different is looked at (strangely)."
To give perspective, the actor recalls an incident where a gay friend of hers arrived to pick her up in the US, dressed in a faux fur long jacket, diamond necklace, with an eyeliner, and she had remarked, "If he could have dressed up soberly."
"And he said, 'Excuse me for breathing!' I said no, it wasn't about breathing but attracting attention. He said, 'You think it's about attracting attention but this is the way I want to be.' That really started for me the feeling that we are so conditioned that we are easily outraged by anyone who doesn't fit the norm."
"When there's this kind of social shift and change, you have to do something dramatic which captures people's attention. So the LGBTQ community, dressing in a way which brings visibility to them, is a way of seeking comfort. Why should they have a problem of, first, coming out in the open, then dressing the way they feel like."
"You can't define a person from the LGBTQ community only by that. There are so many aspects to them and that's fair to demand, that you don't see me only as this."