National Award-winning film editor and screen-writer Apurva Asrani believes that Indian society has come a long way since “Dostana”, a 2008 romantic comedy film that showed its two lead actors pretending to be gay.
In one of the episodes of filmmaker Karan Johar‘s TV show “Koffee With Karan”, actors Arjun Kapoor and Varun Dhawan did a skit on two gay men interacting in a bar. Though some people criticised it on Twitter, Asrani had a good laugh.
“It was done in good spirit. Neither Arjun nor Varun was disgusted nor poking fun at gay people. If anything, they were shy, which was quite endearing. Really, we’ve come a long way from ‘Dostana’,” he added.
Acclaimed filmmaker Onir, known for making films on socially relevant issues like gay rights, said: “I have not seen it … So cannot comment if it was ridicule or just harmless fun. I think it’s good to have a sense of humour and be able to laugh and not take everything too seriously. We Indians get offended at everything.”
By Subhash K. Jha
