Celebrate Pride Month with these Queer Indian Shows
Shows
It's Pride Month! Get to know the Indian community with these Queer-Themed shows, you can stream now!
Guest author: Navin Noronha. Stand-up comedian; podcaster (Keeping It Queer)
Invite your friends
and enjoy a shared experience
So it’s June! While for most people, this is the month where the rain Gods start their drizzly dance, for the queer community, it marks the dawning of the Pride month. The infamous Stonewall Riots that happened in 1969 ended up fueling a freedom struggle that we continue to fight to this day. In India, our current biggest enemies are the archaic Section 377 (introduced by the British colonialists and abolished in UK 50 years ago), and the lack of awareness about queer lives and our struggles. The courts are yet to decide how the law can accommodate us as equal citizens. But we can all do something about the awareness part!
Queer Indian Content
Thankfully, there are several Indian queer creators who have decided to use the Internet as a means to reach out to a wider audience. Why do we need queer shows? As already mentioned, it helps tell stories that are not heteronormative (boy and girl fall in love), and most importantly they assure an entire generation that it’s okay to be gay. The world doesn’t hate you and we’re here, we made it, just like you will. So here are a few shows you can check out if you have a smartphone!
Keeping it Queer (Podcast)
I’d like to kick this list off with my own podcast Keeping it Queer. Because gratification is also a thing. I started the show with IVM Podcasts initially as an audio diary of queer people I knew. Since then the show has completed over 40 episodes and continues to grow in its strength and the content, if I may say so myself, is ever-evolving. We also have a Culture Vulture segment at the end now, where we recommend more cool queer creators, filmmakers, musicians, Instagrammers and more. Things get very real on the show, and very queer too.
Listen to it here. (Here's one on the Pune Pride March, the first march of the Pride Month)
LOEV (film)
This movie is fantastic. That pretty much sums up how I feel about its characters, its plot and its settings. It’s as Indie as it gets, but has been handled with utmost maturity and sensitivity by director Sudhanshu Saria. It left me teary-eyed and with goosebumps, and will definitely go down as one of India’s best queer films in the years to come. It would be unfair not to applaud the superb and super realistic portrayals of queer characters by Shiv Pandit, Sid Menon and (Late) Dhruv Ganesh.
Chaiya with Maya (YouTube show)
Alex is a dear friend of mine. He works for The Lalit group of hotels and is a PR and Marketing executive in the day time. But by night, he is Maya the Drag Queen. I’ve performed alongside Maya and she was doing drag commercially in India when no one else was. She is warm, she is kind and she loves drinking Chaiya. The show is fun, breezy and tackles important issues surrounding the community nicely. No T, no shade.
Psyche and the City (YouTube Channel)
Most of us will remember Deepak Kashyap as the teacher who opened up about his homosexuality on Satyameva Jayate. Since then, Deepak has been rallying for LGBTQ+ rights and approaches coming out and other related topics through psychology. His channel has constantly been pushing out amazing content that can help us all understand queer rights. And with his new show ‘Closet Ke Peeche Kya Hai’, he’s welcoming more people to share their stories and struggles.
The Other Love Story (Webseries)
I am constantly on the lookout for shows, videos and podcasts that can help me learn more about lesbian love stories. Because being a gay man, my views and narrative is limited to what I am exposed to. That’s why I was glad to stumble upon this gem of a webseries that tells the story of Aadya and Aachal, two young girls exploring their sexualities and their feelings for each other, whilst also dealing with their orthodox families. On the surface it might seem like a queer love story, but it tackles much more than that and deserves to be watched worldwide.
I hope this Pride month, we can all take time to understand each other’s lives and make living on this otherwise terrible planet bearable. Till then, keep it queer :)
PS: Here is a list of all Queer organization chapters from around India, along with events and marches coming up!
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