1) New Queer Cinema in India refers to a growing movement of LGBTQ-themed Indian films in recent decades that explore queer narratives and identities more deeply and sensitively. 2) Notable examples include Deepa Mehta's 1996 film "Fire," which examined same-sex desire, and Hansal Mehta's 2016 film "Aligarh," based on the true story of a gay professor. 3) These films often challenge stereotypes and attempt to foster greater understanding and empathy for the LGBTQ community among audiences.

1. New Queer
cinema in India
Miss Nidhi Jethava (Research Scholar)

2. What does mean by new
queer cinema in India?
Table of contents
01
What is queer theory?
02
What is new queer cinema
03 04
Some Indian films that could be
considered part of the New Queer
Cinema movement in India

3. What is queer theory?
01

4. According to M. H. ABRAMS and GEOFFREY GALT HARPHAM
Queer theory is often used to designate the combined area of gay and
lesbian studies, together with the theoretical and critical writings about all
modes of variance—such as cross-dressing, bisexuality, and
transsexuality— from society’s normative model of sexual identity,
orientation, and activities. The term “queer” was originally derogatory,
used to stigmatize male and female same-sex love as deviant and
unnatural; since the early 1990s, however, it has been adopted by gays and
lesbians themselves as a noninvidious term to identify a way of life and an
area for scholarly inquiry. See Teresa de Lauretis, Queer Theory: Lesbian
and Gay Sexualities, 1991; and Annamarie Jagose, Queer Theory: An
Introduction, 1996

5. What is new queer
cinema
02

6. According to Michele Aaron
New Queer Cinema is the name given to a wave of queer films that
gained critical acclaim on the festival circuit in the early 1990s.
Coined, and largely chronicled, by film theorist B. Ruby Rich, New
Queer Cinema, or NQC represented the exciting prospect that
lesbian and gay images and filmmakers had turned a corner. No
longer burdened by the approval seeking sackcloth of positive
imagery, or the relative obscurity of marginal production, films
could be both radical and popular, stylish and economically viable.

7. What does mean by
new queer cinema in
India?
03

8. 1) Regarding India, while the term "New Queer Cinema" has been primarily associated with
American cinema, there has been a growing interest and visibility of LGBTQ+ themes in
Indian cinema as well.
1) Over the years, there have been notable Indian films that have explored queer narratives
and portrayed LGBTQ+ characters with greater sensitivity and depth.
1) Indian filmmakers and artists have been increasingly exploring the complexities of LGBTQ+
experiences and shedding light on the challenges faced by the community.
1) These films often challenge stereotypes, provide a more nuanced understanding of diverse
identities, and attempt to create empathy and understanding among audiences.

9. Some Indian films that could be
considered part of the New Queer
Cinema movement in India
04

10. 1. "Fire" (1996) - Directed by Deepa Mehta
1. "My Brother... Nikhil" (2005)
1. Bombay Talkies (2013) by Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag
Kashyap.
1. "Aligarh" (2016) - Directed by Hansal Mehta
Some important movies

11. ● The movie Fire (1996) by Deepa Mehta
to investigate the deeper underpinnings
of same sex desire in a patriarchal world
which is at the same time
heteronormative.
● This was one of the first movies in Indian
Cinema to broach such a topic and like
all extraordinary art had to face the ire
of the people and was banned for a long
time. (NARAYAN, SONAM, and Dr.
Reena Mittal.)
1. "Fire" (1996) - Directed by Deepa Mehta

12. "My Brother... Nikhil" (2005)
● My Brother… Nikhil was
the first to have focused
on homosexuality in
India.
● Despite this claim, the
film articulates gay
subjectivity as emerging
from a global, rights-
based perspective, it is
argued. (Ferrão, R.
Benedito.)

13. Bombay Talkies (2013)

14. “Resisting the righteous imperatives of assimilation, acceptance and “balanced”
sociability, queer subjectivity in Bombay Talkies appears to be constructed
through a far more oppositional matrix. In other words, the film takes the
“abnormality” of its queer characters so fully for granted that it does not for
once seek to portray them in unrealistically sympathetic or flattering terms. It
also broadens the discourse of queer representation by exploring hitherto
unchartered themes of “transgender” identity, cross-dressing and the unfixed,
perennially shifting relationship between sexuality and biology. This is especially
significant in the context of mass media representations in India, where the
cross-dresser is invariably a figure of mirth and derision. In effecting these
thoroughgoing departures, Bombay Talkies foregrounds what I provisionally
term a negative aesthetic, one that conceptualizes queerness as a locus of
radical, reterritorializing difference rather than rehabilitative sameness.
(Sameer Chopra )

15. "Aligarh" (2016) - Directed by Hansal Mehta

16. Hansal Mehta, the director and Apurva Asrani brings forth the story of
Professor Siras on the Indian cine screen working delicately on the issue of
homosexuality and the struggle the professor has to go through, to get his
repute and job as a professor back at the university.
This movie is a mirror of Indian society and shows the mindset of the people of
our society be it the highly-educated university authorities, learned professors,
readers and scholars of the university or the common people of the society. (
Pandya, Digvijay, and Pavitar Parkash Singh.)

17. Aaron, Michele, editor. New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader. Edinburgh University Press, 2004. Accessed 29 July
2023.
Abrams, M.H., and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2012. Accessed 29 July 2023.
Chopra, Sameer. “Towards a ‘Negative Aesthetic’: Bombay Talkies and The Queer Futures of Popular Hindi Cinema.”
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, vol. 9, no. 1, 2017, doi:10.21659/rupkatha.v9n1.18.
Ferrão, R. Benedito. “Gay Globalization via Goa in My Brother… Nikhil.” Journal of Creative Communications, vol. 6,
no. 1–2, 2011, pp. 141–147, doi:10.1177/0973258613499217.
Work Cited

18. NARAYAN, SONAM, and Dr. Reena Mittal. “Deepa Mehta’s Fire: An exploration into possibilities
of alternative love.” IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), vol. 27,
no. 1, 2022, pp. 64-65, https://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol.27-Issue1/Ser-
1/J2701016465.pdf.
Pandya, Digvijay, and Pavitar Parkash Singh. “Hansal Mehta's Aligarh: A Critical Study Of
Queerness In The Socio-Political Backdrop.” Journal of Pharmaceutical Negative Resultsehta's
Aligarh: A Critical Study Of Queerness In The Socio-Political Backdrop January 2023, vol. 13,
no. 9, 2022.