Manoj Bajpayee to feature in gay love-making scene

10 Jan 2015

We saw Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das making love inside a mosquito net in Deepa Mehta's Fire . And we saw Randeep Hooda and Saqib Saleem exchange a shocking kiss in that segmented stunner Bombay Talkies . Hansal Mehta's Aligarh could be the first mainstream Hindi film to feature a full-fledged gay love-making scene between two men. The film directed by Hansal Mehta recreates the tormented life of the real-life gay professor Srinivas Ramchandra Siras who was expelled from his work at Aligarh University weeks before retirement after being caught on camera making love.

Says a source close to the project, "The crucial love-making at the end would be filmed and not just suggested on screen. Manoj Bajpayes who plays the part of the professor is a brave and fearless actor. He had no qualms about doing the scene." Hansal Mehta who directs Aligarh says, "Manoj will go by the requirement of the script. But the conviction to do what has to be done must come from within the actor. When I was shooting for Shahid it was Rajkummar Rao who suggested that he strip down to his bones for an interrogation scene. The actor has to be convinced about the requirement of the scene."

Hansal feels Aligarh would be his toughest film to date. "We have Article 377 and that means every act of homosexual love-making is criminal. To make a film about an academic who was gay is not an easy task. You've to constantly remind audiences that though teachers are supposed to set an example, they are, at the end of the day, only human."