{"id":5311,"date":"2016-04-19T01:45:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T20:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=5311"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:34:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:04:47","slug":"rituparno-ghosh-and-the-power-of-queer-rights-activism-through-movies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=5311","title":{"rendered":"Rituparno Ghosh and the Power of Queer Rights Activism Through Movies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><div class=\"container page-content\"><p><span class=\"dropcap\">I<\/span><\/p><\/div><p>n <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rituparno Ghosh: Cinema, Gender and Art<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Ghosh succinctly sums up the price that artistes often pay when the personal becomes political.\u201cMy city, I know, can neither handle me nor ignore me. I have indeed estranged a section of my audience. I am aware of the loss. A lot of them are wary of my cross-dressing in public! In fact, the respect I used to command has been seriously affected by my decision to proclaim my <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/gender\/lesbian-bi-or-pansexual-why-i-refuse-to-label-my-sexuality\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sexuality<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d he confesses.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rituparno Ghosh, who died at 49 in 2013, was one of the few openly gay figures in Indian cinema, operating at a time when mainstream Bengali cinema was reduced to churning half-baked commercial potboilers. His films had recognisable themes: they revolved around the complexities of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/love-and-sex\/30-never-love-relationships-dating-singlehood\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">relationships<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, gendered desires, and the intricacies of emotion. Even though, the later films in the multi-hyphenate director\u2019s illustrious career feel evidently informed by his own public outing as well as by the emerging narratives of sexual and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/gender\/coming-out-transperson-surgery-suicide-india-lgbt-community\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gender identity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Bengal and India. But the torment of being in the closet is even detectable in some of his earlier films, including <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raincoat<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2004) and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Noukadubi<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2010), where he employed queerness from behind the scenes, invoking the metaphor of the \u201ccloset\u201d to characterise the ways in which desire is confined and repudiated in arranged marriages.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a way, his sexuality has always been present in his films as an absent performer. Take <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Asukh <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(1999), which revolves around a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/first-person\/father-sexually-abused-child-hate\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">father<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> who is forced to depend on his daughter\u2019s earnings. Rohini\u2019s (Debashree Roy) half-lit and over-furnished room is cut-off from the world outside, metaphorically and literally becoming a \u201ccloset\u201d in which she is entrapped in all her gloom. Similarly, in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chokher Bali<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Ghosh effectively deploys the male body as a spectacle \u2013 there are several shots in which the camera affectionately captures the intimacy between Mahendra and Ashalata or Binodini and him, the film\u2019s three leads.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But it was in the last three films of his career \u2013 Kaushik Ganguly\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arekti Premer Golpo<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2010), Sanjoy Nag\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Memories in March<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (2011), and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chitrangada <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(2012), his last directorial outing \u2013 that sexuality is almost a living, breathing character. It\u2019s worth noting that these three films were released in the backdrop of the changing scenario of LGBTQAI+ movement in India, right after the Delhi High Court <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/sec-377-queer-men-internet\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">read down Section 377<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Indian Penal Code in 2009. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arekti Premer Golpo <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">revolves around a Delhi-based transgender documentary filmmaker Abhiroop Sen and his bisexual lover, a cinematographer who wants to make a documentary on the life of the famous \u201cjatra\u201d actor Chapal Bhaduri. In the process, Sen comes in terms with how much of his life mirrored with that of Chapal. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chitrangada<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, on the other hand, focuses on Rudra Chatterjee and Partho who slowly get attracted to each other. And <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Memories of March<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tells the story of a divorced mother who comes to terms with her late son\u2019s sexual identity.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1567244227.jpg\" alt=\"rituparno_ghosh_queer_chitrangada\" width=\"583\" height=\"407\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-53969\" \/>\n<figcaption>\n<p>In <i>Arekti Premer Golpo<\/i>, Ghosh plays Abhiroop, the English-speaking middle-class transgender director from the metropolis who faces discrimination and mental trauma owing to his sexuality.<\/p>\n<p>Cinemawalla<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arekti Premer Golpo<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Ghosh plays Abhiroop, the English-speaking middle-class transgender director from the metropolis who faces discrimination and mental trauma owing to his sexuality and in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Memories in March<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he is Ornab, a sensitive yet impatient queer guy with an impeccable taste for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/how-i-broke-up-with-the-perfect-sabyasachi-wedding-saree\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sarees<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chitrangada<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he plays Rudra, a cross-dressing feminine choreographer and playwright struggling to reconcile with the terrible social humiliation aimed at him due to his sexual orientation. Rudra gets breast implants and almost undergoes a sex reassignment surgery in order to be able to adopt a child (given that Indian law has no legal provision that allows two men to adopt a child).\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a way, all three characters in these films act as an extension of Ghosh\u2019s personal identity. These movies, in which he played characters who were tragically isolated, came out at a time when Ghosh had himself alienated his close friends and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/bali-tourists-family-indian-tourists-civic-responsibility\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">family<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, while growing paranoid about his own gender (it\u2019s a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.livemint.com\/Leisure\/THAnJURBLNEj5wmKOTmbDO\/The-fluid-world-inhabited-by-Rituparno-Ghosh.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">widely held belief<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that it was because he desperately wanted to be a woman). It was in these years that Ghosh started wearing flowing outfits, kajal and dangling earrings. \u201cWearing things like earrings and necklaces has always been a part of our sartorial history and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/nastik-atheist-india-religion-hinduism-indian-traditions-superstition\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tradition<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. These were tagged as feminine frills during colonial rule and I don\u2019t see anything wrong in reinstating it. My point is why shouldn\u2019t I celebrate my sexuality?\u201d Ghosh asked in an interview.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He answered that question through his films, celebrating his sexuality by playing cross-dressing protagonists who wore make-up and women\u2019s garments. Like Rudra in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chitrangada<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, even he underwent <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/people\/doctors-day-india-demons-governement-hospital\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">surgeries<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> like breast implants and abdominoplasty. There\u2019s even a dialogue in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chitrangada<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, where a character sneakily comments \u201cIsn\u2019t it becoming much too autobiographical?\u201d To which Rudra replies: \u201cYou think so because you already know my story.\u201d That reply does two things: Not only is it a jab directed at the voyeuristic tendencies of viewers who watch <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chitrangada<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to find clues to Ghosh\u2019s personal life but it also legitimises their expectations of watching a confessional; an artist giving art an all-access pass to his life.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In an interview when Ghosh was asked about his sexual orientation, he politely pointed out how limited the general understanding of sexuality was, which were in most cases contained by binary definitions. He refused to label his identity in a bracket, saying, \u201cEverything is in a state of making, eternally, nothing is ever complete, the same is true of the body and therefore, identity. It\u2019s a continuous process.\u201d His last words in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chitrangada<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> take that thought forward. In it, he says, \u201cThis is a changeable world. Nothing is permanent \u2013 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/is-it-alright-to-give-away-your-dead-parents-belongings-memories\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">possessions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, love, things we own, even our own bodies. Why then do we cling to things like gender and identity with such fierceness? Why do we turn them into such issues?\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\"><p>In a country where the stigma around homosexuality has for long been perpetuated by pop culture and Bollywood, Ghosh\u2019s films humanised queer living.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a country where the stigma around homosexuality has for long been perpetuated by pop culture and Bollywood, Ghosh\u2019s films humanised queer living. He brought the \u201cthird gender\u201d to the mainstream and gave voice to an entire community, way before it was fashionable to tick all the boxes.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If not for Ghosh, gender and identity might have never gone from being \u201cissues\u201d to \u201cdrawing room conversations\u201d. By giving a face to queerness and lending authenticity to the struggles of not identifying with an assigned gender, Ghosh chose to blur the lines between himself and his art. He might have not lived long enough to be an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/uapa-law-activists-arrest-government\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">activist<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but his films will continue to remain crucial expressions of his activism.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Arekti Premer Golpo, Memories in March, and Chitrangada, the last three films of Rituparno Ghosh\u2019s acting and directing career, sexuality is almost a living, breathing character. He might have not lived long enough to be an activist, but these three films remain a crucial expression of his LGBTQIA+ activism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":356,"featured_media":5314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[9060,9061,221,1102,8604,227,9062,821],"class_list":["post-5311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-bengali-cinema","tag-cross-dressing","tag-gay","tag-homosexuality","tag-lgbtqia","tag-queer","tag-rituparno-ghosh","tag-section-377"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Rituparno Ghosh and the Power of Queer Rights Activism Through Movies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Arekti Premer Golpo, Memories in March, and Chitrangada, the last three films of Rituparno Ghosh\u2019s acting and directing career, sexuality is almost a living, breathing character. 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