One’s sexual orientation should be nobody’s concern, says Rajkummar Rao

Mumbai: One’s sexual orientation should be nobody’s business, says ”Badhaai Do” actor Rajkummar Rao who hopes there is more honest representation of LGBTQI community in cinema going forward. The film, billed as a spiritual sequel to the 2018 hit “Badhaai Ho!”, follows characters played by Rao and Bhumi Pednekar as two closeted homosexuals who enter into a marriage of convenience to keep conservative family members at bay and protect their respective partners.

Rao plays Shardul Thakur, a police officer who is gay, in the film directed by Harshavardhan Kulkarni, Rao’s senior from the Film and Television Institute of India.

The National Award winner said “Badhaai Do” is an attempt at representing the LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex) community on screen as honestly as possible.

”The whole point is to normalise everything. I have known so many people who are from the queer community. There are people like Shardul (his character). What they do inside their bedrooms is not our concern. The sexual orientation should be nobody’s concern… it is a very personal thing,” the 37-year-old actor told PTI in an interview.

He was part of Hansal Mehta-directed 2015 biographical drama “Aligarh”, which revolved Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras (Manoj Bajpayee), a Marathi language professor, who loses his job and is ostracised for his sexual orientation. Rao played a journalist called Deepu Sebastian, who covered stories related to Siras.

Speaking of the change in the screen representation over the years, he said, “I hope there is more honest representation and inclusiveness in cinema in future.” “The acceptance is there but a big section of society is not being able to accept somebody being gay or queer. We want to normalise the whole taboo behind being gay…” he added.

For the role, the actor said, he relied on Kulkarni’s vision and script penned by Akshat Ghildial and Suman Adhikary.

“Shardul is someone who has come from my imagination and the character that Harsh and the writers had written. The script was so well researched, every character was very detailed. Harsh has done all the research, he has spoken to so many people and so many people were involved while writing it. So, all that made things easy for us,” he added.

Rao, a stellar performer in films like “Shahid”, “Newton”, and “Bareilly Ki Barfi”, said it was a conscious decision to present the subject of “Badhaai Do” in a sensitive manner using comedy as a tool.

“We have made our film very reachable, made it in an entertaining way to show their pain, which is very important. However, it is not at all insensitive. There is much more to the film than what we have shown in the trailer. It is highly emotional in nature. The film will make you realise how we see things and how we are ignorant about another person,” he added.

“Badhaai Do” also speaks about choices people make in life and Rao said he is proud of the decisions he has made in his career of 12 years.

“I stand by the work that I have done more so now. The kind of films that I have done or will do are something that I always wanted to do. I do not calculate things anymore. I will continue to do work that excites me. And it has always worked with me, be it ‘Newton’, ‘Shahid’, ‘Omerta’, ‘Stree’ or ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’,” he said.

“Badhaai Do” is scheduled to be released in cinemas on February 11.