Mumbai: While the Supreme Court has held homosexuality as a criminal offence, Bollywood has been quite open about it and several filmmakers have also depicted such relationships on the big screen.
In `Bombay Talkies`, the anthology that paid tribute to 100 years of Indian cinema, a short film made by director Karan Johar dealt with a love story of two male characters played by Randeep Hooda and Saquib Salem.
Previously, Karan depicted gay relationship in his film `Dostana`, where Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham pretended to be lovers so they could share an apartment with Priyanka Chopra.
In Karan`s `Kal Ho Naa Ho`, the characters played by Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan are mistaken as gay lovers by Saif`s domestic help. It was portrayed in a fun way.
The 2010 movie `Dunno Y...Na Jaane Kyon`, directed by Sanjay Sharma and written by his brother Kapil Sharma, who also played the lead, was about the life of a gay model forced to compromise on his morals for his career.
The film premiered at India`s first mainstream gay film festival, the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival.
Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar gave a glimpse of gay relationship in his award wining film `Fashion`. The subject was also shown in his previous film `Page 3`.
Filmmaker Onir with his films `I Am`and `My Brother Nikhil` touched upon the subject.
Actresses Eesha Koppikar and Amrita Arora took everyone by surprise with their film `Girlfriend`, in which they played lesbian lovers.
Filmmaker Deepa Mehta`s `Fire` traced the love story of two unhappily married sisters-in-law -- played by talented actresses like Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das.