Extra-Connubial Gay Affair…in Reel and Real Life

Dunno Y…Na Jaane Kyun is a film based on complexities of relationships and multiple affairs. Gladrags model-turned actor (and dancer) Yuvraaj Parashar plays Rituparna Sen’s husband, Zeenat Aman’s son, Helen Jairag Richardson’s grandson and Kapil Sharma’s boyfriend. Did Yuvraj possibly fit in the complexities of an extra-connubial gay affair, in a still homophobic nation? Sourendra Kumar Das meets him

I have seen Dunno Y…Na Jaane Kyon twice, first the unedited version in April 2010 at Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival and later in November 2010 the edited form at a special screening where I was invited by Yuvraaj Parashar and Kapil Sharma at PVR Cinemas, Juhu in Mumbai. I was sandwiched between designer Riyaz Gangji and his wife Reshmi, so in the interval I went out to chew the fat with Yuvraj.

Yuvraj, along with his PRO for the film Himanshu Jhunjhunwala was welcoming the guests, when I shooted the breeze about the projection of multiple affairs depicted in the movie. I sit down with Yuvraj in the third-floor of PVR, sipping a coke and munching pop-corns to tell you what he feels about multiple affairs in reel and real life.

Homosexuality and infidelity both are commonplace and fairly visible in our modern society. Bengali actress Rituparna Sengupta’s role as Rebecca (Yuvraj’s wife in the film) where she indulges in an extra-marital affair with her (gay) husband’s own brother is also a familiar story. We cannot even pass over Zeenat Aman romancing two men at one time in the film.

Yuvraj feels as the choices have increased today, staying with one person in life is quite unimaginable! Even Ranbir Kapoor came out openly about his multiple affairs in an episode of Coffee with Karan where he openly discloses his strategies to handle many girlfriends and Deepika Padukone telling in the other episode of the same TV show that a packet of condoms is ideally the best gift for her present neighbor and ex-boyfriend.

Y still feels that quite often friendship between two stars is mistaken as an affair, impugning us (journalists) that we have a habit of connecting people whenever they come together and perhaps enjoy a lighter moment together at a party or elsewhere. He says the population of the Tinseltown, the likes of actors, models, designers, make-up artists, and even fashion and film journalists often fall prey to multiple affairs. But Y acquits himself from that crowd as he is monogamous and is waiting for his true love in life.

According to Priyanka Chopra in Dostana ‘Pyar to andha hota hai,’and yes Y contradicts with what Kiran Rao said in the film, telling that Love is blind and does not judge the sex of an individual. Married in a heterosexual marriage and yet having an extra-marital affair with his gay partner is politically felony but not beyond the pale. There are blatant mental and bodily desires of both the sexes, so if a married (gay) man has the right to have a boyfriend, the wife should not be abstained from the same because she is a woman. Even in small towns like Agra and Meerut, Y knows about wives who have realized that their man is gay and yet have a continued happy secret affair with the husband’s brother or friend.

Despite the audience liking the film; distributers had a tough time releasing the film as they said the bare-bodied scenes are unfavorably chosen for Indian family audience. The irony is that Mallika Sherawat baring her butts in Hiss releases without much hullabaloo in Indian cinemas in the same date. When I met Mallika in the premier of Hiss, while interviewing her, she laughed and said, ‘It is my body, no one tells me how much to show!’ I wish Yuvraj, Kapil, Rituparna or Maradona could say the same to the Indian audience for their love-making scenes in the film. Nevertheless, we should not forget Dunno Y like a mirror projected a section of the society and that section is scared to see their image in the theatres too!

Y is flooded with appreciation emails, sms, phone-calls from nationwide cinema lovers and complains from his fans in Meerut who want to watch the movie, but the film is not released in his hometown. I remember at the premier of My Brother…Nikhil, while interviewing Onir some five years ago in Fun Republic in Mumbai he had said, ‘My film is based on true historical fact, and the standard disclaimer about the fictitious content was just a compromise with the country’s Government to gain permission to take the film to the silver screen.’

Indian masses have moved on and the cinema audience accepts movies like Dostana and Dunno Y. But Y tells the gay readers of Pink Pages that multiple affairs has only cons and no pros, being faithful to one man is the key to happiness in life. To others he says, ‘I am proud of the viewers that despite homophobia in the society, you have come to the theatres to watch a gay film.’