Bollywood actor speaks about turning down a gay role

A while back we blogged about an upcoming short film by Indian director Mira Nair (The Namesake, Hysterical Blindness, Vanity Fair) called The Migration, which details a love between two men and the impact that AIDS has on it. The film almost didn't happen -- not because of censorship or funding, but because Nair almost couldn't find any actors to play the gay roles. Nair noted:

"Playing a gay character for Indian actors is still quite a challenge … Irfan (Khan) took on the role headlong. He has an extremely challenging part in The Migration. His fearlessness as an actor reflects in his selection of roles. The Migration is not a sweeping-under-the-carpet kind of love story. It shows an intense love between two men."

Recently an interview ran on Indian news site DNA with up-and-coming actor Randeep Hooda (pictured above), who turned down the role that Khan took. In the interview, Hooda is quick to point out that he has no problems with the gays himself, explaining:

"But to me, global terrorism, overpopulation, poverty, religious fanaticism and economic discrepancies are much larger issues. Homosexuality isn’t such a big issue in our country. We, as a people, are far more tolerant of alternate sexuality than other parts of the world."

Which is why one of the country's most celebrated and recognized filmmakers almost couldn't find any actors to play gay characters in her new film. Gotcha. When pressed, he continues with a bit of reasoning that would put the Bush administration to shame:

The Migration wasn’t about gay people. If it was about the prejudices against gay people I’d happily do it. It’s about AIDS awareness. It’s a very noble cause. And I’d happily fund that. But I am very new as an actor in films. I can’t stick my head out so prematurely.

So although the film was about two gay men, it wasn't about gay people? And if it had been about gay people, he would have taken the role? And further, it was about AIDS, which is a cause that he cares about, so he turned it down? Er ... okay.

The last two sentences are pretty much all he needed to say -- we're more than familiar with that kind of attitude, even in Hollywood.

As a side note, am I the only one who looked at the above picture of Hooda (taken from the promo materials for his smash hit crime drama D) and immediately thought of Lolita?

I guess today's lesson in image control would be: Gay = bad. Jailbait = good!