: Shocking Reason Why This Irrfan Khan Film was Banned in 1995 Why it Should be Released #IndiaNEWS #Films Nearly a decade before Irrfan Khan made his mark on mainstream Hindi cinema with his visceral

Shocking Reason Why This Irrfan Khan Film was Banned in 1995 Why it Should be Released #IndiaNEWS #Films
Nearly a decade before Irrfan Khan made his mark on mainstream Hindi cinema with his visceral performance as Ranvijay Singh, a violent student leader in Tigmanshu Dhulias Haasil (2003), he starred in a gay romance film which never saw the light of day. It was banned by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC or popularly known as the Indian censor board) for its homosexual overtones. The censor board didn’t approve of homosexual romance in 1995.
(Image above of Irrfan Khan in the film Qarib Qarib Singlle courtesy Facebook/Irrfan Khan)
Ironically called ‘Adhura’ (meaning ‘incomplete’), the 1995 movie starring art dealer and gallerist Ashish Balram Nagpal, Irrfan Khan and Kity Gidwani, could have probably broken new ground in how queer identities were represented in mainstream Hindi cinema. Until Adhura was made, queer identities were stereotyped in the most jarring manner through flamboyant and effeminate caricatures often wearing ghastly makeup and characters depicted as criminals.
Adhura, on the other hand, a film directed by Sunil R Prasad was about a passionate homosexual relationship between an industrialist and a newspaper editor, according to a 1995 Indian Today report. Although both men are in love, Irrfans character (the editor) decides to remain in the closet and takes a wife, played by Kitu Gidwani. Reports indicate that in the film, this passionate relationship between the two men turns sour and results in a tragedy.
The film had the potential to be one step ahead of the typical caricatured portryal of homosexuals given the mainstream occupation of the characters. There were exceptions later in the decade like Tamanna (1997) directed by Mahesh Bhatt which features a story about Tikoo (Paresh Rawal), a trans person, abandoned by their mother. Despite box office failure, it won a National Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues (1998).
A still from the film Adhura (Image courtesy Indiacontent. in/Twitter/Manish Gaekwad)
In a 2007 interview with journalist Upala KBR, Irrfan said candidly that he would have no reservations about playing queer roles. When discussing some of the ‘intimate scenes’ he shot with Ashish Nagpal on the set of Adhura, he expressed no discomfort.
“If Ashish had a crush on me, he expressed it in the most intimate way in the film! Adhura was made for TV audiences, but I dont know why it never get[s] released,??? he said. While reports pegged Adhura as a 90-minute movie, writer Andrew Grossman claims in his book ‘Queer Asian Cinema: Shadows in the Shade’ (2000) that it was made as a pilot for a television series.
The shelving of the film, however, didn’t deter Irrfan from playing queer characters down the line.

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