Gay Bombay revisited - part two
Riyad Wadia with a friend at his home in Worli Sea Face, Bombay 1997
When I was shooting my film “Indian Queens – the forbidden gay world of Bombay” in 1997, it was very difficult to find people who dared to step in front of the camera and talk openly about being gay. Homosexuality was still a big taboo in India. According to the Indian Penal Code, Section 377 homosexual acts were considered a crime at that time.
Riyad Vinci Wadia - an avant-garde filmmaker
Only a few were prepared to break the silence. One of these pioneers was the filmmaker Riyad Vinci Wadia. He made “BOMgAY” (1996), the first gay movie from India. I am grateful that I met and interviewed him, he was a fascinating personality. It is very sad that he did not live to see the removal of Section 377 in September 2018. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 and passed away on November 30, 2003, at the age of just 36.
Riyad Vinci Wadia was born on September 19, 1967 into an illustrious Parsi family in Bombay (now Mumbai). Parsis are followers of the ancient Iranian prophet Zoroaster. They are originally from Iran and migrated after the Arab conquest of Persia in the 7th century to India. Most of them settled in Mumbai.
Riyad Wadia’s grandfather was the legendary film director, screenwriter and producer J.H.B. Wadia. He founded the production company Wadia Movietone in 1933 which “specialized in delightfully entertaining mix-ups with some subtle propaganda either for democracy or for nation-building activities or for the emancipation of Indian womanhood” (see filmindia review of Bambaiwali 1941).
Riyad Wadia followed in his grandfather's footsteps, inherited the company, but made completely different films. He was considered an avant-garde filmmaker, a “Young Turk” of the film industry, he tried new paths away from the commercial Bollywood scene. Riyad Wadia made his international breakthrough with “Fearless - The Hunterwali Story” (1993), a documentary about his great aunt, who enjoyed huge success as the stuntwoman “Fearless Nadia” in Indian cinema in the 1930s. “Hunterwali” (1935) was Wadia Movitone’s big film hit.
BOMgAY - first gay film from India
A scene from Bomgay, shown at the Voodoo Pub, Bombay 1997
Riyad Wadia at the screening of Bomgay at the Voodoo Pub, Bombay 1997
As Riyad Wadia describes in an autobiographical essay, it took him a long time to accept his homosexuality. In 1993, at the age of 26, he came out, first in his personal environment, then also in the social circle in which he moved, the glittering, outwardly open, inwardly often rigid, hypocritical Bombay of the upper-class. It was then that he decided to make a film about what it means to live as a gay man in conservative India, where homosexuality is criminalized.
R. Raj Rao reads poems from his collection “Bomgay” at the Voodoo Pub, Bombay 1997
In 1996, he made the 12-minute feature film "BOMgAY". It is based on six poems by R. Raj Rao, whose writings primarily reflect gay life and love in India. Back then he was still at his beginnings, meanwhile he has become famous, especially with his novel “The Boyfriend” (2003).
BOMgAY” shows the hidden world of gays in Bombay and does not shy away from explicit sexual scenes. Although the film did not have mass screenings, it received huge media coverage and was a milestone in the fight for gay rights in India.
Interview with Riyad Vinci Wadia in November 1997
In 1997, I interviewed and filmed 30-year-old Riyad Wadia at his home in Worli Sea Face and in the "Voodoo Pub” at a closed gay cultural evening, where he also showed his film "BOMgAY". “Voodoo” was one of the first clubs in Bombay with a gay night on Saturday. In his Interview he was very open and told me about his coming out to his family and to the Bombay society.
Riyad Wadia was a protagonist of my film “Indian Queens - the forbidden gay world of Bombay” (28min., 1998). More about the old times you will find here: https://lekhasarkar.com/indian-queens
And on my blog Gay Bombay revisited - part one you get background information about this series: https://lekhasarkar.com/blog/2024/5/3/gay-bombay-revisited-part-one
Meeting the wonderful Nargis Wadia in 2019
Apart from the fact that in 1997 very few gays were willing to be filmed, it was completely impossible to get their parents in front of the camera. The shame and pressure from society was too great.
Nargis Wadia, Mumbai 2019
While researching in India in spring 2019, I met Nargis Wadia, Riyad’s mother in Mumbai. She was 84 years old at the time. I was very impressed by her courage to publicly campaign for the recognition of India's homosexuals by appearing in schools, events, festivals, on YouTube etc., which remains a huge exception for Indian parents to this day. I was deeply touched by how she learned to accept that her two sons, Riyad and Roy, are gay. And that she is not bitter about the early death of Riyad, the younger of her sons. “Many things were hard, but it made me grow”, as she puts it. Her conclusion: “Riyad helped others a lot, he had not a long life, but a meaningful life.”
The series continues: Gay Bombay revisited – part three is about the famous make-up artist Cory Wallia.
Related YouTube stories (including Mumbai Pride 2019 and “Dodo – from glamour to social awareness, Mumbai, India”. He was a friend of Riyad Wadia and is Zoroastrian and gay too): youtube.com/@chitra_lekha_sarkar
All photos and videos: Copyright Chitra-Lekha Sarkar