5 Hindi Films That Portray LGBTQ+ Relationships With Nuance

We've come a long way from the John Abraham-Abhishek Bachchan fake-gay hijinks of Dostana. For decades, Bollywood's relationship with queer identity was a bad punchline—caricatures for comic relief, or tragic victims meant to evoke liberal tears. But since Section 377 was repealed, and due to some bold directors working within the industry, Hindi cinema has gradually started producing queer relationships with the messy, everyday, and very human complexity they deserve.

5 Hindi Films That Portray LGBTQ+ Relationships With Nuance

Here are five movies which abandoned the stereotypes and actually presented us with LGBTQ+ relationships without the caricature.

1. Aligarh (2016)

The film introduces itself more as a portrait of dignity assailed rather than a love story. Based on the wrongful persecution of Professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras for his sexual orientation, the strength of the film lies in its anti-activist hero. Siras (Manoj Bajpayee) does not want to be a gay icon; he just wants to have a whisky, listen to Lata Mangeshkar, and live the private life a straight man takes for granted. The "relationship" is seen in glimpses—a gentle moment with a male friend, or the deep, platonic curiosity with the reporter (Rajkummar Rao). The glory of the film is that it refuses to label Siras, so that his simple, irrefutable right to live and love can be more articulate than any lines in a courtroom.

2. Badhaai Do (2022)

The application of the term 'Lavender Marriage'—where a lesbian woman and a gay man marry for protection—is a sour reality for so many Indians, and this movie confronts the emotional cost of the arrangement with a sharp script. Instead of getting mired in fear of society, the domestic and intergenerational conflict of the film is central. The film excels at capturing the simultaneous but differing struggles of Shardul (Rajkummar Rao) and Suman (Bhumi Pednekar) to be truthful. Their tense, pragmatic relationship built on secrecy and deep-seated platonic love is rooted in a contemporary Indian reality in a manner that feels nuanced and close, offering a story about queer individuals trying to build some kind of happy home, even if it's an emotional halfway house.

Don't miss: Bias Against The LGBTQ+ Community: Gen Z May Be The Generation That Finally Ends It

3. Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019)

Was it timid? Yes. Did it greatly depend on the "straight saviour" role (Rajkummar Rao)? Yes. But ELKDTAL has its acclaim for two reasons: One, it placed a female queer relationship at the centre in the most marketable package with an Anil Kapoor-Juhi Chawla comeback. Second, the film successfully maintains the camera off of the relationship itself (which is platonic), but on the vulnerability of Sweety, the Sonam Kapoor Ahuja character. Her battle isn't one of being gay; it's one of not wanting to break her family's heart. The film is not as much about sex as it is about the universal, frightening act of honest communication, and its call to the enormous, traditional family audience that needed to hear it most: be open, be honest, be true.

4. Margarita with a Straw (2014)

It's a masterclass in complexity, this film is an intimate portrait of Laila (Kalki Koechlin), a bisexual woman living with cerebral palsy. The film tackles Laila's disability as a fact, not as a gimmick, and her sex life with equal directness. Her romance is messy, real, and tender. Her affair with a blind Pakistani activist is convoluted, exploring not only queer attraction, but the difficulty of closeness in coping with many marginalised identities. It's a beautifully observed movie that avoids the baubles of the usual 'issue film' by merely focusing on a young woman discovering who she is, one exciting step at a time.

5. Ajeeb Daastaans: Geeli Pucchi (2021)

Karan Johar's contribution to this Netflix anthology, which was directed by Neeraj Ghaywan, is the most emotionally mature here. Shot against the backdrop of a tight-knit but ruthless factory setting, it is a film about the charged, explosively intense sexual relationship between two women, Bharti (Konkona Sen Sharma) and Priya (Aditi Rao Hydari). It's not one for huge romances or dramatic revelations; it's one of fitful emotional intimacy and unfulfilled desire linking caste and gender divisions. The subtext is in the unstated: the shared dinner, the secret hand-holding, and the aching recognition that one of the characters' sexuality is staunchly withheld by her privilege and social expectations, eventually betraying something deeper and more fundamental.

Image courtesy: IMDb

For more such stories, stay tuned to HerZindagi.