Gay love story gets a mainstream spin

The 2010 gay love story Dunno Y...Na Jaane Kyun is ready to get into the sequel zone. But there’s a twist in the tale. The sequel, would not just be in Hindi, but in English and Norwegian. And the film’s Norwegian producers have asked the leading man and producer Kapil Sharma to make the homosexual theme more palatable to a mainstream heterosexual audience. Hence the earlier torrid love-making scenes between the film’s leads Kapil Sharma and Yuvraj Parasher are now being toned down. There will be plenty of intimate moments but no kissing and no bedroom lovemaking scenes that had so affronted Parasher’s parents in the first film that they had legally disowned their son. The gay relationship would now be taken into a happy more mainstream zone to cater to a more conventional audience throughout the world. It’s felt by the sequel’s makers that a more fun treatment of the gay theme would get a better audience response. Says Kapil, “Yuvraj and I will play the same characters, namely Aryan and Ashley. But the story is fresh. And this time we shoot in Europe. It will be more of a rom-com this time with some touching moments between our characters.” So is the gay movement softening its attitude to be a more integral part of the mainstream? Sharma concedes, “Our European producers don’t want to make a sob-story out of a gay relationship. They want to celebrate homosexuality, not shed tears about it. So I’d say we’re going a step ahead of the first film in the endeavour to get a larger audience. It’s important for the gay movement to get the non-gay audience’s support and participation.” Parasher’s father has revoked his earlier decision to dissociate himself from his son. Says Kapil Sharma, “Yuvraj’s father came down to Mumbai and declared truce with him. I guess after seeing how many awards Dunno Y...Na Jaane Kyun had received worldwide made him re-consider his decision more realistically.”