Actress Radhika Apte, who begins shooting opposite Rajinikanth in Kabali on September 17, will be portraying a queer woman in Anurag Kashyap’s next film, according to a Vikatan report. Mallika Sherawat and Sherlyn Chopra are also being considered for the lead cast. The announcement comes on the heels of films like Margarita With A Straw, Dedh Ishqiya and Queen, which had strong female-focused roles and broke new ground in portraying sexuality. In 1998, the film Fire became the first Indian film to have a storyline which explicitly explored a romantic relationship between two women. In the aftermath of the controversies around the film, a lengthy legal battle was initiated, to read down Section 377 (which criminalises ‘unnatural offenses’). Recently, Chennai hosted Reel Desires: Chennai International Queer Film Festival 2015, an awareness event organized by city-based groups working on the issue.
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In a recent interview with The Indian Express about her nationally recognised short film Ahalya where she plays a seductress, Radhika Apte had said, “I want to play diverse roles, which I can relate to. I cannot play the shy, coy roles, for I don’t think such characters exist. These are fantasy characters and that too, uninteresting.” The actress feels that the industry is changing with new films which are “commercially viable” and have “nice roles of actresses; films like PK, Piku, NH10, Badlapur, Queen and Tanu Weds Manu Returns. Saying she could never stand the objectification of women in movies, she added that she consistently turns down such roles.