Hansal Mehta on his next project

Director Hansal Mehta says that he wants to make a Gujarati film, even though his story for a Gujarati film on a gay couple’s love story did not get the backing of a producer.

“I have a serious interest in it. I’m a Gujarati and I want to make a Gujarati film. Several years ago, I had also written a Gujarati film which was on a gay couple; it was a love story of two men. However, Gujarati films anyway don’t get producers. So this film would have obviously not got a producer,” he said at the Kashish Film Festival to a query about making a regional film.

Does he still want to make that film? “I have plans but I don’t have the funds to make it,” he said.

Mehta’s recent film ‘Aligarh’ was based on a real-life story of a professor who was a homosexual and how the shooting of his intimate act with a man created problems in his life.

About the film being tagged as a “gay film”, he said: “I’m proud that it is tagged as a gay film, among other names. Some of my distributors were apprehensive about it.”

[Advertisement]

Mehta, who has made films such as ‘Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!!’ and ‘Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai?’, which were about male bonding, quipped: “All my films have been gay films. People have always found this sort of a homo-erotic thing.”

About ‘Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!!’ he said: “People at that time thought it was a gay film as there was male bonding, there were three guys, Manoj Bajpayee, Aditya Srivastava, and Saurabh Shukla, who were riding triple seat on a really small scooter.”

Regarding portrayal of the LGBT community in films today, Mehta said: “We’re also coming of age, we had made ‘Dostana’ and now we made ‘Kapoor & Sons’… it’s a huge leap.

“This year has been particularly encouraging, we had ‘Aligarh’, which dealt with the humanist element rather than treating it as an LGBT subject. You had ‘Kapoor & Sons’ which handled the entire gay issue in a very mature and sweet manner and there is another film ‘Dear Dad’ which I have not seen but have heard that it has dealt in a very mature way.”

Hansal’s next film ‘Simran’ stars Kangana Ranaut.

Inputs from IANS

Also Read: HANSAL MEHTA’S ‘ALIGARH’ CLOSES NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL

Leave a Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *