If there is one man in Bollywood who is single-handedly elevating the social consciousness of the country, it is Ayushmann Khurrana. He started off his journey with a film about sperm donation and how it was completely okay, he even did a film with the ever-glowing Neena Gupta about accepting the sexuality of your parents. He won our hearts. And through his upcoming film, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Ayushmann is bringing the conversation about the LGBTQ+ community to the forefront.
It’s now been more than a year since the Supreme Court of India passed the landmark judgment decriminalising homosexual activity in the country. But the gap between social mindsets and laws is still very wide. No initiative has been taken by the government to bring people from the community to the forefront and make them a part of the mainstream conversation. Maybe that’s why Ayushmann made a statement about same-sex marriages in India that has everyone on Twitter (and us) extremely riled up.
While talking to media outlets on his film and his Instagram post with the Indian flag along with the Rainbow LGBTQIA flag, he said that he’s very proud to be living in such a progressive country where same-sex marriage is legal.
Fact check: Same-sex marriage isn’t legal in India. 😐
I mean, it was only in September 2018 when the archaic Article 377 talking about consensual homosexual sex between adults was ruled unconstitutional. And after fighting for long the community has just got their basic right to dignity. Marriage is still a long fight away.
People on Twitter even made a point saying that there isn’t enough representation of the community in the film.
After getting a lot of flak for his statement, Ayushmann Khurrana also took to Twitter to apologise for his statement saying that it was a genuine slip.
While we would forgive someone who made a genuine mistake, this doesn’t seem like one. A slip is when you mispronounce something or use the wrong word by mistake. How can an entire statement in front of multiple media channels be a ‘genuine slip’?
To the entire team of Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan and Ayushmann Khurana, did you guys actually make an entire film milking the LGBTQ+ movement and not knowing this simple fact? Not going to lie, I am highly disappointed.
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