Opening India's closet

In 2005, "My Brother . . . Nikhil," a low-budget drama about a gay man's struggle with AIDS, found distributors and critical acclaim but failed to connect with mainstream audiences at the box office. The film's director, who goes by the single name Onir, says: "After 'My Brother . . . Nikhil,' I met several producers who said they loved it but nobody wanted to make another film that went near the subject." In comparison, television has been quicker to feature gay characters and themes, in news shows and on the occasional soap opera, but is still a long way from airing a show like "Will & Grace."

With the $10-million "Dostana," Johar and his stars are entering uncharted waters. Which is why even a faux-gay angle is couched in glittering, mainstream trappings -- stars, sun-kissed Miami beaches, trendy styling and several set-piece songs. But within these commercial parameters, Johar and writer-director Tarun Mansukhani are attempting to push the envelope.

To convince their landlady, the heroes invent a romantic back story about how they met and several scenes show them flirting with each other, holding hands and even doing a simmering tango. Another leading Bollywood actor, Boman Irani, plays a gay magazine editor who visits the girl on pretext of work but is more interested in checking out her two roommates. Most critically, the film features the stock, smothering northern Indian mother who becomes hysterical when she first finds out that her son is gay (she isn't in on the lie) but eventually she blesses the union telling her son's boyfriend: "I'm not sure whether you're my son-in-law or daughter-in-law!"

This is the character that Johar and Mansukhani are hoping that viewers will connect with and take home. "The mother is the progressive element for India," Johar say. "She carries the one message I want to send to parents: that their child's sexual orientation is not something that should not be blessed." It certainly helps that the message is being routed through attractive and popular stars. Actors in the Hindi film industry have largely shunned such roles, which might sabotage their larger-than-life images and alienate their fan following. Another leading director, Madhur Bhandarkar, had a difficult time persuading actors to play gay designers in his recently released film "Fashion." "The two roles were rejected by eight to 10 actors," he says. "Each one told me, 'I would love to work with you but I can't do a role like this.' "