Hansal Mehta opens up on why didn't cast a gay actor in Modern Love Mumbai's Baai

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta, who recently directed the episode Baai in the anthology series Modern Love: Mumbai, has been receiving backlash from the queer community for its casting. The episode Baai revolves around the love story of a gay couple portrayed by Pratik Gandhi and Ranveer Brar. Though the episode was well received by the audience for its heartwarming tale, it received backlash for its casting as it didn't feature anyone from the queer community, though the plot primarily revolved around gay characters. However, Hansal Mehta, who opened up on the casting, said that it was an aesthetic choice.

Hansal told Mashable India in a recent interview that he agreed with the queer community that representation was important in stories. But at the same time, he believed that if somebody was right for the part, he would go ahead and cast them, whether they were queer or straight. Calling it an honest representation, Hansal Mehta said that he didn't see any point in the backlash. He added that some people had termed the episode old-fashioned. He went on to add that Manoj Bajpayee who starred in Aligarh (directed by Hansal Mehta) had convincingly portrayed a gay character though he was straight, thus emphasising on the point that honest representation was what mattered to him. He stated that he will definitely cast queer actors if he felt that they were right for the part.

Amazon Prime Video's Modern Love Mumbai is the Hindi adaptation of the famous US series Modern Love. The TV series is based on the New York Times’ famous Modern Love column. The anthology comprises six stories- Raat Rani (Shonali Bose), Mumbai Dragon (Vishal Bhardwaj), My Beautiful Wrinkles (Alankrita Shrivastava), I Love Thane (Dhruv Sehgal), and Cutting Chai (Nupur Asthana) along with Baai (Hansal Mehta). The Telugu version of the show is all set to release this week and this will be followed by Modern Love Chennai as well. The anthology is set against the backdrop of the cultures of the respective cities.