India’s first queer film is a thirsty love triangle drama from 1971 & was once thought to be lost forever

Image Credit: Badnam Basti,’ Arsenal Institute for Film and Videoart

Gay characters have long existed in Indian cinema, though Bollywood—not unlike its American counterpart— often made them the butt of the joke.

The country didn’t overturn its colonial-era laws banning homosexuality until 2018, so it’s only in recent years that we’ve seen more sympathetic portrayals of LGBTQ+ life in Indian movies, where queer people could be the heroes of their own stories.

That makes it all the more surprising to discover that India’s first queer film is over half-a-century old—and its got a pretty forward thinking attitude toward love and sexuality!

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