After a long battle since 2001 when Naaz Foundation, Delhi filed a PIL seeking legalisation of homosexuality between consenting adults, the Supreme Court of India finally decriminalised part of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalised ‘unnatural sex’, ensuring the right to equality yesterday. The historic step called for celebrations throughout the country, as it also recognised transgender as an independent gender with the right to PAN application form and PAN access.
Activists, students, artistes and intellectuals marched in victory and shared their views on social media.
Artistes from Bengali film industry, too, came forward expressing their joy at the verdict.
Kaushik Gannguly, the maker of Arekti Premer Golpo (2010) and Nagarkirtan (2018), two films that openly discuss the issues of homosexuality and transgender remembered the late Rituparno Ghosh today while praising the stand by the Supreme Court. Ghosh was one of the pioneering filmmakers and artistes who continued to fight against the criminalisation with his artistic, literary works, public discussions on gender issues, equal rights and his own sexual preference and identity.
Ghosh acted in double homosexual characters in Ganguly’s Arekti Premer Golpo, in Memories of March (2011) by Sanjoy Nag and as a homosexual choreographer in his own film Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish (2012) with Jisshu Sengupta.
Ganguly tweeted: "‘Elem Notun Deshe/ Tolay Gelo Bhogno Tori/ Kule Elem Bhese’ [Lines from Tagore] Today there would have been festivals in the city if you would have been there. Adieu 377, welcome Nagarkirtan. I congratulate all the fighters," with a photo of Ghosh, dancing in bliss.