Lesbian themes in Bengali films
Contents |
Sources include
Is Tollywood ready to cross the Sandra line The Telegraph
Rituparna and Unnati bare it all! Ruman Ganguly, The Times of India, TNN | May 25, 2012
Bengali films with lesbian themes
10th July
Chhoye Chhuti/ Chha-E-Chhuti
Chha-E-Chhuti (dir: Aniket Chattopadhyay): In the film Locket Chatterjee plays a lesbian TV actress.
Koyekti Meyer Galpo
Nil Nirjane (2003, dir: Subrata Sen)
When Nil Nirjane was made it could only give hints of lesbianism between two characters because the audience was not ready to see it in a Bengali film. In an international film they would have had no problems with the same subject.
Paromitar Ekdin
The Telegraph suggested that there were lesbian undertones in Paromitar Ekdin, between the mother-in-law (Aparna Sen) and her daughter-in-law (Rituparna Sengupta). Rituparna, however, did not think there were any lesbian or sexual undertones there.
Samo — The Equals
Samo — The Equals (dir: Chandreyee Ghosh): The film is about lesbian and [male-male] homosexual relationships: man-man and woman-woman. This was actress Chandreyee’s debut as a director and led to rumours about her sexual preferences.
She responded by telling The Telegraph, ‘Well, I am single for the past two-and-a-half years. I have had very long relationships with men. But to me a woman-woman relationship is very normal. ... I won’t say I don’t believe in the concept of marriage but I am not sure if I want to get married.’
Tollygunj actresses on lesbianism
Mallika Majumdar, actress
Mallika, who played a lesbian in Samo — The Equals, told The Telegraph that for her, locking lips with a female co-star is as natural as kissing a male star! She, too, had to contend with rumours about her sexual preference. She responded, 'I have many male friends and an equal number of female friends, and to them whether I’m heterosexual or homosexual doesn’t matter at all. And I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks about me.'
Rii on her bisexuality
Rii told The Telegraph, 'I am bisexual. I am in a relationship with Q [who directed Bishh] but I have fallen in love with women too. I was in love with my cousin sister. I may fall in love with a woman on a bus or a tram. Sometimes I am attracted to the way they dress, or their bindi or their sari...I want to play lesbian characters ... but nobody has offered me a role like that yet. My question is can our filmmakers show intimacy on screen beyond just a kiss?'
Indeed, most of the actresses interviewed by The Telegraph said that they would like to do lesbian roles.
