Explained: The Homoerotic undertones in Rajamouli’s RRR and outrage over Resul Pookutty’s comment

It won’t be an exaggeration to say that there are only a few films from the Indian film industry that have had an impact quite like Rajamouli’s _RRR_ . From the gripping storyline, stunning visuals, and breathtaking action sequences to a stellar performance by South megastars Jr NTR and Ram Charan - RRR became a force to be reckoned with, so much so that it received critical acclaim from international critics and cinemagoers too. However, it was in June (which is ironically Pride Month ) when news started trickling in that a certain section of the Western audience felt that the story - which shows Jr NTR and Ram Charan befriend each other and act as rebels against the government is ‘heartwarmingly gay’. News agency ANI first broke the news with a compilation of tweets from the Western audience who happened to watch the Rajamouli’s-directorial. That’s not all - some went as far as comparing the film to Netflix’s hit show Heartstopper which took the world by storm this year for its portrayal of gay romance. One user tweeted, “RRR is about two gay boys in love.” Why did the Western audience feel RRR was based on gay romance? To get a grasp of what made the Western audience think this way, we must first understand the concept of heteronormativity which is essentially an assumption that everyone - from real people to characters in the film are straight and that sexual and romantic relationships can only exist between a man and a woman. In short, heteronormativity assumes heterosexuality as the default sexual orientation and the only normal and acceptable way to express romantic or sexual attraction. Needless to say, Indian films have not portrayed homosexual relationships with the kind of seriousness and nuance that some of the films in the West have. This is mainly because Indian society is very heteronormative and patriarchal in nature. While there have been some rare films which did do a good job at portraying gay romance, most of them, the likes of Dostana caricaturize the gay characters and play into the stereotypes. As a result, the queer viewers living in India, a country that is largely heteronormative, hardly have literature or cinema that portray gay romance because of which they start viewing films with a queer gaze. One might argue - that this is akin to finding homosexuality where there is none. However, the queer community, which has been margizalised for centuries, has had no outlet to express their sexuality. As a result, they tend to view situations which are seemingly heteronormative to a straight person with a queer gaze. This probably explains why a section of the Western audience could sense the homoerotic undertones in Jr NTR and Ram Charan’s seemingly heteronormative bromance. Resul Pookutty and the ‘Gay Story’ comment Resul Pookutty is an Oscar-winning sound designer who won an Academy Award for Danny Boyle’s film Slumdog Millionaire in 2009. When actor-writer Munish Bharadwaj called RRR ‘garbage’ in a tweet, Resul wrote ‘gay love story’ in the comments and followed it with another comment: ‘… and Alia is a prop in that film… (sic).’ The comment was not only misogynistic because it reduced Alia, an accomplished actress in her own right, to a ‘prop’ thereby objectifying her, but it also insinuated that Ram Charan and Jr NTR were being gay in a way that was meant to be condescending. Twitter was quick to school Pookutty and called him out for being homophobic in large numbers, with some even tagging The Academy and asking them to take back his Oscar.

 Shobu Yarlagadda Schools Pookutty Baahubali producer Shobu Yarlagadda took to Twitter the next day to slam Pookutty for his tone-deaf and inappropriate comments. “I don’t think @RRRMovie is a gay love story as you say but even if it was, is “gay love story” a bad thing? How can you justify using this? Extremely disappointed that someone of your accomplishments can stoop so low! (sic),” he wrote. Pookutty was quick to backtrack and said, “Agree totally. Absolutely nothing wrong even if it was. I merely quoted2 my frnd,d banter that already exists in the public domain & nothing else. There is no stooping factor in this. U don’t have2 take it seriously Shobu,I didn’t mean any offense2 to any stakeholders. I rest my case here.” Is India ready for a gay love story? If a film - where the writer didn’t even intend to make the leading heroes a gay couple and only showed them as stereotypically masculine men - can attract a slew of homophobic comments, it goes without saying that there would be major outrage if an Indian director or a producer were to make a gay love story. India, indeed, is highly heteronormative and the general public struggles to accept that two men or two women (not including the non-binaries here) can be romantically inclined towards each other. The rampant homophobia and the lack of laws for the protection of LGBTQ+ community are proof enough that we have a long way to go before as far as accepting homosexuality, let alone a film on gay romance is concerned. RRR is definitely not a ‘gay love story’ by any measure (in fact, it is the most heteronormative film made in recent times). The fact that it still managed to receive criticism and homophobic comments only go on to show how the mere thought of two people being close to each other is unacceptable and an act of sacrilege in today’s world. It also shows that we have a long way to go as far as normalizing homosexuality and fighting for the rights of the queer community is concerned.

Deepansh Duggal is an entertainment, pop-culture and trends writer based in New Delhi. He specializes in op-eds based on the socio-political and gender issues in the world of entertainment and showbiz. He also writes explainers and occasionally reviews shows in the OTT space. He tweets at @Deepansh75. 

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