New Delhi, Feb 25 (.) “Accused,” starring Konkona Sen Sharma and Pratibha Ranta in the lead roles, is set to premiere on Netflix on Feb 27.
The film revolves around a woman accused of sexual misconduct, while also exploring her sexual identity with nuance and restraint.
In a conversation with Variety India, director Anubhuti Kashyap along with actors Konkona Sen Sharma and Pratibha Ranta, discussed portraying queer identities on screen and how they consciously ensured the narrative avoided tokenism.
When asked how she approached authenticity in building the queer narrative, writer-director Anubhuti Kashyap explained that the foundation lay in the title itself, and in telling the story from the perspective of the accused, who in this case is a woman.
She said, “Okay, if it’s a woman accused, do cases like these happen? We did a lot of research. We found that, yes, there are many such cases, especially in Western countries. Even in India, there are documented ones, but they occur more frequently in the UK and the US. So, we started to build a story from there.”
This research-driven starting point allowed the team to organically weave in a queer relationship rather than positioning it as a headline statement.
“That allowed us more room and freedom to build a queer relationship with these characters. Because basing it in India would have meant we had to make a statement about it. But here in this film, we haven’t. So basically, from there on the word ‘accused’ and the character itself, that was our starting point, and we built from there,” she continued.
Kashyap emphasised that the intent was never to make the film a declarative commentary on sexuality, but to treat it as an inherent aspect of the characters’ lives.
“So actually, there’s no tokenism in this because there is essentially nothing declarative about the characters. There is no statement being made about them. It’s simply part of their reality. And having said that, it is integral to the story because it adds depth to the accusations and scrutiny the main character faces. We treated it that way, and I think that helped ensure it didn’t come across as tokenism or as a film solely about that. We never wanted the story to focus only on that the story was about everything else,” Kashyap added.
Konkona Sen Sharma echoed the sentiment, expressing appreciation for narratives where queerness is normalised rather than treated as conflict.
She said, “I’m very glad to have played and been part of a queer couple that’s been so normalised. It just happens to be the case, and it’s not the cause of the film or the issue of the film. You don’t have to introduce a homosexual character or a differently abled character and make that the focus.”
“Our world is populated by people with many identities and affiliations. In fact, all of us have multiple overlapping identities, I’m a mother, a woman, a Bengali, an Indian. Each identity places me within different groups, some larger, some smaller,” she added.
Sharma further added, “When somebody is from the queer community, that shouldn’t be the only focus. It is a fundamental part of who they are and how they experience the world, but it is not the only one. That’s what happens here. It becomes a base layer, while many other things unfold around it. It blends organically, which is ideal.”
Pratibha Ranta noted that the layered writing helped the film avoid reductive storytelling.
“I think it’s also written in a way that it doesn’t come across as tokenistic. The story is very layered. It’s about this woman being accused, Dr. Geetika Singh, and how it affects her professional life, her relationships and her family. It’s a world where multiple aspects come together,” she said. . MI .