Celebrities take to Twitter to express support for LGBTI community

In order to lend support to the cause, film celebrities, directors Onir and Reema Kagti, and editor Namrata Rao have been appealing their Twitter followers to become signatories. Kagti, known for her 2012 film Talaash and also as the co-writer on Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, on Thursday took to Twitter to urge her friends from the industry to sign the petition. A vocal supporter of the LGBTI rights, she posted the link to the petition on the timelines of several film personalities, including Shabana Azmi, Farhan Akhtar, Aamir Khan, Vishal Dadlani, Rajkummar Rao, among others. “1,500 species exhibit homosexuality, only 1 exhibits homophobia (sic). Be the solution, not the problem,” read her tweet addressed to author Chetan Bhagat.

Apart from asking them to sign the petition, she has been requesting them to retweet or share the link. Several celebrities have complied, including actors Alia Bhatt, Boman Irani and Rajat Kapoor, singer Ankur Tewari and director Rohan Sippy. The total number of signees at the moment stands at 4,275.

“I found this petition online a few days ago and realised that only 3,000 people have signed it up till now. decided that I’ll dedicate a few hours of my free time to make people aware of this petition and urge them to become signatories. Since they all have thousands of followers, the petition might reach out to many more through these celebrities,” said Kagti, who is currently working on Zoya Akhtar’s Dil Dhadakne Do.

The writer-director added that Section 377 takes away what is a human right of people. “Some of our laws and politicians reiterate and perpetuate things which are wrong. Take for example the fact that the there’s no provision in the law to charge someone for marital rape. I’m just doing my bit to change things.”

Meanwhile, responding to Pramod Muthalik’s announcement regarding setting up an outfit of Sri Ram Sene party (in Goa), Padma Shri awardee, designer Wendell Rodricks took to Twitter on Sunday to express his displeasure. Reacting to Muthalik’s comment that the outfit would counter “pub, drugs and sex culture” of Goa, Rodricks tweeted, “#Mutalik, I am coming to your #state to promote #alcohol and #gay #tourism. Don’t tell us #Goans about our #state. Stay home.”

Last week also saw actress Huma Qureshi turn narrator for Satyanshu and Devanshu Singh’s film poem with LGBTI theme, titled Ishq Ki Ijaazat. Qureshi had portrayed a homosexual character in the film Dedh Ishqiya, which released earlier this year.
dipti.nagpaul@expressindia.com