Filmmaker and partner pretended to be cousins for 13 years to rent home

Acclaimed Bollywood filmmaker Apurva Asrani has celebrated buying a house with his partner after being forced to hide their relationship for 15 years. Asrani is an award-winning filmmaker best known for Satya (1998), Shahid (2013), and the human rights biopic Aligarh (2016). His drama-comedy series Made in Heaven featured a gay man as a leading character and was widely praised for normalising homosexuality on Indian television.

Despite this Asrani was forced to conceal his sexuality for most of his career, with his long-term partner Siddhant pretending to be his cousin so that they could share an apartment.

“For 13 years we pretended to be cousins so we could rent a home together,” he wrote on Twitter. We were told ‘keep curtains drawn’ so neighbours don’t know ‘what you are’. We recently bought our own home. Now we voluntarily tell neighbours we are partners. It’s time LGBTQ families are normalised too.”

He shared a picture of the new nameplate on his house – with both his and Siddhant’s names proudly displayed alongside each other.

“You search inside your confined space for answers but there isn’t another soul who can share your feelings. You try and find answers through magazines, porn, noises that infiltrate from the outside world. It is lonely.”

Via PinkNews

Be the first to reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.