Faraz Ansari’s short film Sheer Korma has been doing the rounds of international film festivals for quite some time now. Recently it won the Equality in Cinema Award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM). Starring Divya Dutta, Swara Bhaskar and Shabana Azmi, the film challenges many taboos and tries to break the stereotypes assigned to certain communities or groups of people. The story revolves around a woman coming from a Muslim family and a non-binary man, who fall in love with each other and their journey to accept their identities. Ahead of the awards ceremony, the director chatted with News18, where he told us how he envisioned the idea, the conflicts that surround the film, and the state of gay and Muslim representation in Indian cinema.
Interview excerpts:
On the importance of Sheer Korma and what it means for them
It is very important not to use the word marginalized, the representation of the correct word will be reduced. The reason the queer community is consistently under-represented is because it doesn’t fit the heterogeneous understanding our society is used to. So when I decided to become a filmmaker, a storyteller, more importantly, it was very important to me to bring forward the stories of these underrepresented groups like the LGBTQI community. Also, you rarely see Muslim families in the Indian mainstream media in a positive light. We are either terrorists or are associated with any kind of violence. I wanted to bring forward a family like my own – a typical Muslim Indian family. The reason there was Sheer Korma was because people like me were not properly represented in the cinema. The idea is to be able to create these characters, to be able to bring forward these narratives that have always been missing from mainstream cinema. If no one is telling my story, it’s on me to tell it in the most authentic and most honest way possible.
With all the international coverage, do you think the film has got its due recognition at home?
My previous film Sisak, which was India’s first silent LGBTQ love story, won many awards across the world, but sadly none of them won in India. What happened with Sheer Korma is that even before the release of the film, a lot of trolls on social media started giving it low ratings on IMDb. How are these people rating my film on IMDb without even seeing it? This tells how much hate the film is getting as it talks about love. The hate is multi-layered – it’s not just coming from homosexuality, it’s also coming from Islamophobes, it’s coming from people who don’t want to see Swara Bhaskar or Shabana Azmi in my film. Sadly, this has been the reception in India so far. The world is celebrating the film but it is not getting any reception in the house, people keep trolling it on social media. It amazes me how a film that talks about love, talks about acceptance, can get so much hate. It is a very relaxing movie which you can watch with your family, friends, grandma, anyone. You just need to give it a chance.
With a story that didn’t appeal to the mainstream, was it difficult to get people on board?
When I wrote the film in 2019 and went to the producers to pitch it, they said, ‘It’s a great story but why don’t you turn this woman’s character into a man and the other character is non-binary? what does this mean? Make it a story between two good looking men. That’s what I was told (laughs). But I really had to stand my ground and say this is a film that I want to make and start a huge conversation. I want to bring forward the female protagonist, I want to bring forward the non-binary protagonist, I don’t want to do what everyone else is doing. Thankfully, when I reached out to my actors, they all agreed at once.
On the status of gay and Muslim representation in Indian films
The biggest problem about queer representation starts at the point where cis-hat people are making up a weird story. They create these characters from research but when a gay filmmaker does it, we’re doing it from our own real life experiences. That honesty will never come from research. The biggest wrong credit is when you ask the wrong people to make up stories they don’t belong to. So, all the movies with queer characters that have come out lately never come close to a true, authentic portrayal. And when it comes to Muslim representation, we all know how problematic it is. I come from a Muslim family that doesn’t speak Urdu everyday, we don’t have biryani everyday, my house is not green in color. So where are these families on the big screen? Why can’t I see a family like my own in theatres? Even when we are the central characters, we are the antagonists. We are never the leading people. And when we are in the lead, the character has to say ‘My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist’. We have to prove our patriotism continuously. This is not right and that narrative has to change. I am doing my work with Sheer Korma by showing a regular Indian family that also happens to be Muslim.
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