Hindi cinema Archives • In Plainspeak

Hindi cinema

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Queering the Narrative: The Evolution of LGBTQ+ Themes in Hindi Cinema

Despite the progress made, Hindi cinema still faces challenges in accurately representing the diversity of LGBTQ+ experiences. Critiques have been raised regarding the tendency to prioritize cisgender, upper-class narratives.

By Taarina Therese Chandiramani

March 18, 2024

Queering the Narrative: The Evolution of LGBTQ+ Themes in Hindi Cinema

Video: Meet The Woman Helping Bollywood Have Better Sex

Aastha Khanna is India’s first intimacy coordinator who is making sure that a film’s vision is realised without flouting anyone’s boundaries, or leading to general awkwardness on set, especially when it comes to intimate scenes.

By TARSHI

March 18, 2024

Video: Meet The Woman Helping Bollywood Have Better Sex

Still from DDLJ, Kajol running towards a running train while Shah Rukh Khan extenda a hand from the train

Brushstrokes: These Tweets Delightfully Feminist Up this Classic Bollywood Film

Twitter was hashtagging the 21st anniversary of the classic Bollywood film, ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ (1995) a few months ago, a human rights organisation did a fun take on it by asking its followers to feminist up the film’s iconic dialogue, “Ja, Simran, Ja”.

By Curated Content

January 5, 2017

Brushstrokes: These Tweets Delightfully Feminist Up this Classic Bollywood Film

Othering the Unlikeable Woman in Hindi Cinema

When I saw Alia Bhatt’s gloriously flawed Kaira in the film ‘Dear Zindagi’ (2016), I felt so gratified I could have jumped up and cheered. To paraphrase, she resolutely sheds the burden that Hindi film heroines have been hefting on their always-delicate shoulders since the first hero whistled wolfishly across the street – the need to be relentlessly likeable.

By Damini Kulkarni

January 5, 2017

Othering the Unlikeable Woman in Hindi Cinema

A film still of Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor dancing with Holi colours thrown on them. Over the picture is a screenshot of a tweet that reads, "Balam pichkari joh tune mujhe mari, toh seedhi saadhi chhori ne harassment ki FIR likha di. & she was taken seriously. #FeministBollySongs"

Brushstrokes: #FeministBollySongs

Twitter has been rumbling with chuckles and giggles over the last few days with a trending slew of Tweets and…

By Curated Content

January 4, 2016

Brushstrokes: #FeministBollySongs

Themes

In Plainspeak publishes one issue every month, with a single theme running across two months. Our aim is to expand safe, inclusive self-affirming spaces.

CURRENT ISSUE:

February-March 2026: Digital Intimacies and Sexuality

With ever-increasing (for most of us) access to and reliance on digital modes of connecting, we are no strangers to digital intimacies – erotic, sexual, platonic, emotional – on social media, gaming platforms, dating apps, and so on. While digital spaces afford possibilities of sexual freedom and pleasure, they also hold the threat of surveillance, exposure, and abuse. So what do we do to optimise our experience? Do we use different modes of self-representation, visibility/anonymity and self-censorship on different platforms? How do factors like queerness, ethnicity, caste, a/sexuality, and disability play out in the creation and sustenance of digital intimacies? Are the sexual intimacies that digital spaces afford congruent with those in our offline lives? Must they be, or is there a particular thrill in their not being so? What is ‘authenticity’ when it comes to our online persona/e and our sexual lives? These are some of the questions that this issue of In Plainspeak engages with.

फरवरी – मार्च २०२६: डिजिटल अंतरंगता और यौनिकता

हम में से अधिकांश लोगों के लिए डिजिटल माध्यमों तक पहुंच और उन पर निर्भरता लगातार बढ़ती जा रही है, और सोशल मीडिया, गेमिंग प्लेटफॉर्म, डेटिंग ऐप्स आदि पर डिजिटल अंतरंगता – कामुक, यौनिक, गैर-यौनिक, भावनात्मक – हमारे लिए कोई नई बात नहीं है। डिजिटल स्थान यौन स्वतंत्रता और आनंद की संभावनाएं तो प्रदान करते हैं, लेकिन साथ ही निगरानी, पर्दाफाश और हिंसा का ख़तरा भी पैदा करते हैं। तो हम अपने अनुभव को बेहतर बनाने के लिए क्या कर सकते हैं? हम विभिन्न प्लेटफॉर्मों पर आत्म-प्रतिनिधित्व, दृश्यता, गुमनामी और आत्म-नियंत्रितता को कैसे अलग-अलग तरीक़ों से इस्तेमाल करते हैं? क्वीयर होना, अयौनिक होना, यौनिकता, जातीयता, जाति, और विकलांगता जैसे कारक डिजिटल अंतरंगता के निर्माण और उसे बनाए रखने में क्या भूमिका निभाते हैं? क्या डिजिटल मंचों द्वारा प्रदान की जाने वाली यौनिक अंतरंगता हमारे ऑफलाइन जीवन की अंतरंगता के अनुरूप है? क्या ऐसा होना ज़रूरी है, या फिर ऐसा न होने में एक ख़ास रोमांच है? हमारी ऑनलाइन पहचान और हमारे यौन जीवन के संदर्भ में प्रामाणिकता (ऑथेंटिसिटी) क्या है? इन प्लेनस्पीक का यह अंक कुछ ऐसे प्रष्नों पर विचार-विमर्श करता है।

UPCOMING ISSUE:

April-May 2026: The Self and Sexuality

The Self that walks around with us, that says, “This is me”, what has it got to do with sexuality? Born of body, mind, heart, spirit, and experience, the Self is what we may think of as the beingness and the whatness of a person. It occupies a context, interacts with others, and is embedded in systems and structures of culture, society, economy, politics, etc. This Self, while it encompasses caste, class, ethnic, gender, sexual and other identities, is more than all of them. What does the Self bring to sexuality and what does sexuality bring to the Self? How does the Self engage with the body, personal values, other selves, external systems and structures, and so on, in order to experience sexuality as affirming?

अप्रैल-मई २०२६: स्वयं (निजी व्यक्तित्व) और यौनिकता

जो स्वयं / निजी व्यक्तित्व (सेल्फ़) हमारे साथ रहता है, जो कहता है, “यह मैं हूँ”, उसका यौनिकता से क्या लेना-देना है? शरीर, मन, हृदय, आत्मा और अनुभव से जन्मा, सेल्फ़ वह है जिसे हम – किसी के अस्तित्व और जैसे वे है – के रूप में सोच सकते हैं। यह एक संदर्भ रखता है, दूसरों के साथ बातचीत करता है, और संस्कृति, समाज, अर्थव्यवस्था, राजनीति आदि की प्रणालियों और संरचनाओं में अंतर्निहित है। इस सेल्फ़ में, जहाँ जाति, वर्ग, जातीय, जेंडर, यौनिक और अन्य पहचानें शामिल हैं, यह इस सब से कहीं अधिक है। सेल्फ़ यौनिकता में क्या लाता है और यौनिकता सेल्फ़ में क्या लाती है? यौनिकता को पुष्टि के रूप में अनुभव करने के लिए सेल्फ शरीर, व्यक्तिगत मूल्यों, अन्य स्वयं, बाहरी प्रणालियों और संरचनाओं, आदि के साथ कैसे जुड़ता है?

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We curate content from other portals to amplify discussion around sexuality and rights. All rights remain with the original sources. Corners and Videos are embedded links and Brushstrokes and Blogrolls are republished from open sources with a link back to the original source. Older links may no longer be available.

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