How Queer Filmmakers and Allies Found Joy While Filming 6 Stories On Love

Rainbow Rishta, available on Prime Video, is a docuseries that follows 6 queer love stories, nay, 6 stories about love across the length and breadth of India. The show’s creators and crew wanted to show queer joy in the Indian context like it has never been shown before. And each frame of the show is dripping with vulnerability, deep heartache and even more triumph. Triumph not only for the stories you see on-screen, but also the triumphs for the queer filmmakers behind this show.In one of the opening montages, wedding card-makers in Khadilkar Road, Mumbai proudly show off their cards and boast about the fact that they work with people from all intersections of society. The conversation slowly builds up to asking the wedding card-makers if they would make cards for LGBT+ couples.

This question is poignant in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict on October 17, 2023 on marriage equality. Showrunner for Rainbow Rishta, Jaydeep Sarkar, was immensely disappointed with the news. But for him, as for most queer people in India, this is the time to hold on to what is dearest to us harder than ever. “Most of us have had to hide our authentic selves. We have lived invisible lives, which is why when we come out, our way of fighting back is by spreading joy,” he says.

And there is an argument to be made in favor of normalizing queer joy. The section that criminalized queer sex in IPC Section 377 was struck down by the Supreme Court in September 2018. Radhika Paul, an assistant director on Rainbow Rishta, got the courage to come out after this ruling. Her parents have had a tough relationship with her queerness since. In the show, we see Daniella, an intersex woman’s relationship with her family evolve as she grew older. We see her find the love that she was told she would never find because of her queerness, and plan a wedding to celebrate that love. “What's important is that I think parents should watch it regardless of whether their kids are queer or not, or out or not, and understand that if that kid is queer, they should just wholeheartedly support that,” Radhika hopes.

The queer joy we see in Rainbow Rishta is not an anomaly. Data shows that the tide is turning on how the queer community is perceived in India. According to the World Values Survey, in 1990, 91% of Indians would object to having a queer person as their neighbor. This number dropped to 42% in 2014. 42% is still a very discouraging number, and this is why Rainbow Rishta follows the story of Aneez and Sanam as they try to find a home for themselves in Guwahati.

Navin Noronha, a comedian and writer, who was called on board to do the casting for the show, made his decisions intentionally and took the note on queer joy very seriously. He interviewed 200+ queer folks across India. “It becomes so much like, ‘hey tell us about your struggles’ and as queer people, we’re tired of this kind of stuff, you know?“ he said.

The technical crew behind Rainbow Rishta also unanimously echoed the importance of changing how queer stories are told. “We’ve always painted a queer person as a clown or a villain or a victim with something bad happening to most of them. There’s a certain level of exoticisation that happens where you can’t see them at the same level as you,” said Sneha Nair, Associate Creative Director at Vice Studios for Rainbow Rishta and an ally.

Shubhra Chatterji directed the stories of three queer lives we see in Rainbow Rishta and points out how important it was for them to not fall into the stereotypical othering of queer people. She says the show is “not entirely about how society sees you. But it is the everyday experience of a queer person who can experience love with a partner, who can experience the love of a family, who can experience the joy of achieving something, of becoming a person of their own. So that's what we've tried to capture.” Watching Soham and Suresh navigate the 7-year itch through the 6 episodes, reminds you that queer relationships are not really that queer after all. “The beauty of the show is not that ‘Oh there’s a lot of struggle in a queer person’s life’ but like ‘Shit they are exactly like us.’” Hridaye Nagpal, who also directed three stories in the show, notes.

The fact that Rainbow Rishta wishes to shift queer storytelling is nothing short of revolutionary, and hence, exceptionally essential. According to a 2019 survey done by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) - Lokniti in collaboration with Azim Premji University, 33% of respondents were more accepting of same-sex marriages if they had high exposure to queer stories in the media. Whereas only 10% of those who had no exposure to LGBT+ stories in the media were accepting of same-sex marriages.

Executive Producer Samira Kanwar, however, points out that just telling queer stories is not enough. It is also important who tells these stories. “A lot of this also is intentional… trying to be as inclusive, as thoughtful as we can as individuals when we are making conscious decisions by creating content as well as while hiring a team,” she points out.

Navin also believes that real representation comes when you don’t do it for the sake of pandering. Which is why the hiring went beyond having a queer make-up artist or stylist - the stereotypical roles queer folks get hired in. According to Samira, “there are so many fantastic queer directors. There are queer DOPs, but you never see that representation.” For Navin, it was a non-negotiable that even the production team that has to come together has to be queer. “So my constitution was always that we are not going to exploit these stories. We're not going to be telling these stories from a work lens,” Navin said. And Hridaye reiterated that. “It was imperative that the people on set were emotionally invested because it somewhere went beyond filmmaking. It went beyond just being good at your job,” he said.

The care with which the crew asks questions to Sadam while they capture the subtlest shifts in his expressions and body language as they simultaneously portray the delicateness in the fleeting moments of eye contact and soft touches that Sadam shares with his date as he mends his broken heart could only have happened if the set was a safe space. And it wasn’t just casting queer crew members and allies that made the set comfortable. All the crew members did a workshop with Sheena Khalid and Puja Sarup, co-founders of Patchworks Ensemble Theatre Company. In one of the exercises, Sheena put those behind the camera in front of the camera to help build empathy and compassion within the crew members which also led to them finding a sense of community in one another. “While we are showing probably 30 minutes of their lives, we have actually sat down with them and heard the entire journey. And in that, there's so much that we also tend to share,” Radhika reminisces.

It is also remarkable and refreshing that the crew was always aware of the responsibility they had in sharing these stories with the world. Hridaye notes, “these characters, these people have let us into a very private part of their lives. Even we used to feel almost privileged on some level to be allowed to be here.”

The season culminates with a central theme of thriving. All the on-screen queer personalities are seen healing from their past, overcoming their hardships, or finding the next step in their journey of loving and being loved. We see Lush Monsoon, a Delhi-based drag artist, also take a step forward towards living their life unapologetically as they go on their first date in the series. Fearing their relationship with their parents will change, they haven’t come out to their parents yet, and this show is how they will be coming out to them.

This pushed some of the crew members to heal and thrive off-camera too. Jaydeep decided to not be apologetic about his love anymore. His partner’s mother wanted to have a ceremony to celebrate their relationship. Prior to working on Rainbow Rishta, the thought of participating in an official ceremony to recognise his relationship made Jaydeep squeamish. “But seeing Daniella have the gumption as an intersex person to say that I'm gonna get married, gave me the courage to say, ‘Hey, you know what, I'm gonna do a ceremony and I'm gonna call everyone, and I'm going to celebrate that day.’ ” he said.

Radhika, who identifies as butch, struggled with finding the confidence to buy clothes from the mens section. But the show unknowingly changed that for her. After the last shooting schedule in Delhi, Radhika asked the crew to wait for her. “I just walked into a store, walked into the men's section, picked up a shirt for myself, and walked out. And I was like, wow, this has never felt easier,” she said.

The creators of Rainbow Rishta hope that everyone watches the show and finds hope, joy and courage to love fearlessly and be themselves unapologetically. The show premiered on November 2nd at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and is now streaming on Prime Video.