Streamed live on;June ,12th,2020

The following webinar report is about the negotiation on "Queering Regional Celluloid" topic. The webinar is take up by the Empower people with the moderator named Hridaya tijoriwala. The participants to brief about the webinar are Sachin Labade (Assistant professor, Department of English Mumbai University,PhD scholar in Queer Cinema) Satya Rai Nagpaul ( Cinematographer:Aligarh, Chouthi koot, Zinda Bhaag,Ghoomketu,Newborns,Angry Ghode Da Daan,Gattu). Founder and working member.Sampoorna[A network of trans* and Interse Indians].respectively. He shared insights on the process of creating the queer cinema, sensitive representation, challenges of the industry,what this representation means to the community, mainstream representation comparison, how he sees queer cinema changing in the future and more.

This webinar mainly describes about homosexuality of women and the webinar mainly covers the regional languages like Marathi Bengali Malayalam etc. With the help of movies which were practically screened on social media like films, movies by the presentation of homosexuality within female female really disrupted the view of people. Doctor said this explains various movies of languages which are really disrupted to screen out with the topic of homosexuality. Here respected sir explains about the homosexuality and reason behind the getting like those type of ideas and the particular engage is really amazing. Here we can get the most acceptable reason behind the idea of homosexuality is absolutely by the current world and thoughts what usually gets in that age.

Homosexuality in films really distracts the ones view. They are lot of films which are really involved with topic of homosexuality and the mostly highlighting the woman with the idea of it . It's truly hard to find it in current scenario but previously like nearly in the time of the1980s 1990s days was really sad thing the found.

The earliest references to gay theme in Malayalam cinema was 'Randu Penkuttikal' in 1978. Based on a story by Nanda Kumar, director Mohan narrated the obsessive love of a woman for a danseuse. There are homoerotic references in 'Deshadanakkili Karayaarilla' (1986) and the more recent and famous 'Sanchaaram' (2004), in Rithu (2009) and 'Paranja Katha' (2010).

In Tamil film 'Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu' (2006), two men molested inside a prison by a gang of hijdas take on a life of crime. In the relatively conservative Tamil creative medium, director Venkat Prabhu managed to slip in a gay character in his film 'Goa'.

Cinema is undoubtedly the greatest thing to have happened to the queer movement in India. Doubted, ridiculed and criminalized for centuries, the sexual minorities stepped out from the shadow of invisibility after 2000 to claim their rightful place in popular culture. What followed was a plethora of films that were finally sympathetic to their plight.

Meant perhaps to free them from the shackles of strict convention, Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Page 3' (2005), Anurag Basu's 'Life in a... Metro' (2007), Reema Kagti's 'Honeymoon Travels' (2007), Karan Razdan's 'Girlfriend' (2004) and Parvati Balagopalan's 'Rules - Pyar Ka Superhit Formula' (2003) propagated the same gay stereotypes the filmmakers were trying to avoid. The mainstream has largely let down queer cinema.

But a whole host of films - shorts, documentaries and features - around this time were trying to understand the cultural phenomena of the queer movement. Few among those were 'Tedhi Lakeer' (2004), 'Teen Deewarein' (2003), 'My Brother Nikhil', Marathi film 'Thang' (2006), 'Touch of Pink' (2004), 'Stag' (2001), Water (2005), Yours Emotionally (2006), 'Piku Bhalo Aachhey' (Bengali, 2004), 'Happy Hookers' (2006), 'I Can't Think Straight' (2007) and 'Luck by Chance' (2009).

In the last twenty years the queer identity has come to be taken more seriously in arts. Books had men declaring their sexual identity in no uncertain terms while cinema struggled to strike a balance between the morally acceptable lines the makers still complied to with the changing times.

But films nevertheless shied away from any serious reference to homosexuality. Many consider a man's love for a clearly androgynous Paintal dressed as a woman in 'Rafoo Chakkar' (1975) to be cinema's first reference to homosexuality. The lines defining genders get blurred and the spurned lover accepts that 'no one's perfect' in a sexual insight amazingly cynical for its time in the climax.

Since then there have been parallel work in Malayalam, Bengali and Marathi cinema on same sex love. The 1982 Marathi film 'Umbartha' hinted at a lesbian relationship between two inmates of a remand home.

The third gender played a significant role in Indian cinema, mainly in the form of eunuchs who invaded homes of women who have given birth to a male son. But very few serious films tried to focus on the conflicts and politics of their colonised living.

In this context, the contributions of gay rights activists and filmmakers Sridhar Rangayan, Onir and Rituparno Ghosh to the genre have been immense.

Compiled by; Indrani Kukkadapu.