Shweta Tripathi returns to theatre as a producer with a queer play: I wanted to be a part of this pride celebration

Hindustan Times

6 days ago

Actor Shweta Tripathi is currently engrossed in her production ventures. Earlier this year, she had announced delving into film production to us, and now she is returning to theatre in the same role. She is reviving the Oliver award-winning play Cock, and she insists it is an ode from her to the LGBTQIA+ community. The play tells the story of a man, who is in a relationship with a man, but while they are together, he falls in love with a woman.
Shweta Tripathi shares, 'I recognise myself an ally and I am drawn towards stories that are from the queer community. It's because the community stands for love, equality and freedom. You fall in love with a person, who that person is, not what they are. I wanted to be a part of this pride celebration because we are also celebrating individuality, which we are losing, and it bothers me. If by being a producer, I can give that love and support to my cast and crew, and help them being seen, why not?'
Recently, a play titled Samaaj got banned from its showing in Jaipur citing it to be "unsuitable for public staging" as it told a queer lover story. Ask her about how the news impacted her and she says, 'Bahut bura lagta hai kyunki pyaar to baantna chahiye, and that story was about love. The difference between us humans and AI is EQ and empathy, and hum wo hi hataye ja rahe hain. Humko takleef kis cheez se hai, uspe discussions and conversations bahut zaruri hain. We need to have communication and understand each other even if we come from different backgrounds. That is the need of the hour as life is not black and white, it's colourful and we should enjoy all the colours. So, it feels bad when such restrictions are put in place, kyunki pehle samjho to.'
Shweta's play will be shown in Mumbai during the Pride Month, but does it scare her as a producer that the play might face the same fate if it travels? 'We are just hoping that there is no opposition. As artiste, our job is to keep trying and we will do that. We want to tell stories, but our aim is not to hurt anybody. Ours is a love story, which happens to be about queer people. This story can be about anybody as we are all human beings. So, we want people to support us as I can't do anything alone,' she insists.
Talking of queer representation, Shweta says that it is improving in Hindi cinema today, but insists that it will still take more time to get normalised. 'It's not just about the community but about understanding each other on a more spiritual level. There needs to be more people from the community in everything, and it will take time. We can hope for it, but the change won't happen overnight. We need to be more accepting as people. The change first needs to be brought in at an individual level, then only it will spread to a community level,' she says.
Many people call out the industry for token representation of the community on screen at times, but the actor agrees that even that is necessary. 'It's because if you do it suddenly, it will come out as you are doing it just to be cool or just to fit in. You need to imbibe it in the audience's mind gradually. But token representation should improve and evolve with time, and if it is happening that way, it's all fine. And no change is big or small,' she ends.