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Is Jeetu Bhaiya from Kota Factory queer? Notes on reading sexuality in narratives where it's not explicit
FirstpostAnonymity in the form of subtle details is often afforded to queer characters, as they are to queer people in real life who do not want to talk about their sexuality. Neither of the biggest commercial films on queerness — Dostana, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, and most recently, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan — afforded their queer characters any interiority beyond their sexuality. In a recent interview I did with Kota Factory writer Saurabh Khanna and director Raghav Subbu to piece together how they created the character of Jeetu Bhaiya, the supportive teacher and the agony aunt of the Kota students, I had asked about the sexuality of the character, and this had riled up a few readers. This might be because Jitendra Kumar, who plays Jeetu Bhaiya, also played Aman Tripathi, one of the gay men in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. Additionally, Jeetu Bhaiya has a prominent earring, which, like the nose ring Ayushmann Khurranna wore in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, seemed like an explicit iconography to connote his sexuality.
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