DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.9| GUHA: QUEERING CALCUTTA_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 66an filmmaker. He is considered an icon of the LGBTQ+community of India. He explored the transgenderlifestyle during the last years of his life. He himself underwent breast implant surgery for one of his actingroles in the movie Arekti Premer Golpo(Another LoveStory) in 2010. In his later films he explored sexualliminalities and himself became the central point ofhis explorations in films such as Memories in March(2010) where he played the role of a gay character.Rituparno was probably the first openly gay malefilm-maker in India who broke cinematic barriers withhis subtle depiction of relationships.At the height of his film-making prowess, Rituparnowas sought out by mainstream Bollywood actors whowanted to work with him. Some of his finest films,such as Raincoat(2004) and Antarmahal(2005),featured celebrity Bollywood actors who came toKolkata to work with him in his low-budget films. Anavid Satyajit Ray fan himself, Rituparno was an heirto the Bengali cinematic masters such as Ray, RitwikGhatak and Mrinal Sen. Rituparna’s area of influencecrossed over to television and print where he hostedchat shows and also edited the famous film magazine Anandalok for some time. Ghosh sadly passedaway in 2013 at the age of just 49, leaving behind arich yet incomplete cinematic legacy.rian-era conceptions of appropriate sexual behaviour. As the British Empire consolidated its control onthe Indian subcontinent in the nineteenth century, itsideas about culture, society and law began to manifest themselves in Indian society. These includedWestern Judeo-Christian sexual norms that viewedlocal notions of sexuality as barbaric. It is now hightime to recognise that these ideas and norms wereimported and imposed by the coloniser and not onlyhave no roots in but actually fly in the face of traditional Indian culture. Given all these complexities,all efforts at queering Kolkata are to be welcomedas they will pave the way for more placemaking andinfrastructural support.ConclusionConsidering all these case studies, one may conclude that though progress is being made, there is stillroom for more, especially with respect to fosteringwider societal acceptance of both gay and transcommunities. This can only be accelerated by acknowledging colonialism’s impact on LGBTQ+ communities in the region and the ways in which colonial-era laws marked a stark departure from the fluidconceptions of gender and sexuality once prevalentin precolonial India. The subcontinent’s fluid genderand sexual norms did not conform to Britain’s Victo-
