EXCLUSIVE: Kirti Kulhari RECALLS people assuming her ‘lesbian’ after short haircut; says, “Being homosexual is attached to…”

In 2016, Taapsee Pannu was seen in Pink with Tapsee Pannu and Amitabh Bachchan in which her performance was praised. The film earned her a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2017, she appeared in the title role of Indu in Madhur Bhandarkar’s political thriller film Indu Sarkar. She starred in Blackmail with Irrfan Khan in 2018. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Bubble, Kirti Kulhari recalls her Instagram post made people believe that she is a lesbian.

Kirti Kulhari on her Instagram post

Talking about her Instagram post where she had chopped her hair, Kirti said, “Yaar, I don’t remember everything in such detail. The specifics you ask about—I just remember the overall feeling. I do remember that when I got my hair cut, I started receiving DMs and messages from people, especially girls. And I got a message—I remember it clearly—from the father of a teenage daughter, around 12-13 years old. I don’t know exactly who forwarded it to me from my family, but someone sent it to me. He said that his daughter, who is around 12-13 years old, got so inspired just by the fact that I cut my hair like this. She asked him if she could do the same, and he let her.”

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A post shared by Kirti Kulhari (@iamkirtikulhari)

She added, “For me, that message was all about the idea that I just did something that felt right to me—it wasn’t to start a trend or to show off how cool I am. It was purely a momentary decision. I had just finished shooting Hisaab Barabar, and a couple of days before that, I had already decided. My hair had been through so much—so many colours, and treatments. I just thought, ‘Chop it off.’ The day I finished the shoot, I went home and cut this much off myself. Then the next day, I went to my hairstylist and told her to chop it all off.”

Kirti on how people would react

Kulhari said, “She was so excited about it! When I told her over the phone what I was planning, she was like, ‘This sounds amazing!’ Both of us are a little crazy like that. Usually, people ask, ‘Why are you doing this? You’re an actress, you should keep long hair.’ But she’s just as crazy as I am. We keep doing random things like this. Then I started receiving messages from women saying, ‘This looks so cool on you! I’ve been thinking about doing this, but I just haven’t been able to. Seeing that you can inspire people in a way as simple as cutting your hair—it’s surprising, right?”

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A post shared by Kirti Kulhari (@iamkirtikulhari)

She added, “But there’s so much pressure attached to hair. There’s personal attachment and family pressure. Some people told me, ‘My parents, my mom, will never accept me if I cut my hair.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my God, what are we even dealing with?’ I find it really heartwarming to see how even small things can have an impact. It’s not about whether something is small or big—it’s about courage, about that feeling of Can I do this? For me, cutting my hair while being in this industry was an act of courage. Not even for a second did I think about how it would affect my projects or if someone would hire me based on my short hair. It’s really heartwarming to see that all of us are just looking for inspiration and courage to do something in our lives.”

Kirti Kulhari on being a lesbian after her haircut

Talking about how haircut is conditional to your upbringing, the actress said, “It’s like they were like, you know. She is going to come out and come out of the closet and announce soon. Just with the hair again, conditioning the fact that, oh, if I have long hair, I am not a lesbian. The moment I chop my hair, suddenly you start thinking—because your attachment to someone being a homosexual, a female homosexual, is somehow linked to how they keep their hair. You know, what kind of hairstyle they have. So, I was rather amused by just the way people see what you do through their own lens and through their conditioning.”

Written by Akankshya Mukherjee and transcribed by Harsh Nargolkar

Watch the full interview

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Kirti Kulhari recalls her ‘funny & casual’ casting couch incident with South director; says, “I was not offended…”