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LGBT characters should be given more screen time in Bollywood movies to help bring about a shift in cultural thinking, Indian actor Manoj Bajpayee said on the sidelines of a film festival in London aimed at championing diversity.
Bajpayee, who played a gay professor in 2016 drama Aligarh, said public debate about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues was key to tackle taboos in India, where gay sex is still illegal.
However he said LGBT roles had become a more common sight in recent years.
"Earlier these topics were ignored or shoved under the carpet," he added.
Although the law is rarely enforced, activists say it is used to intimidate, harass and blackmail gay people.
"(It) is a sign of a healthy society if each and every citizen of our country is given the rights to live and live in the manner they want to live," Bajpayee said, adding he was hopeful the court would produce a "positive" ruling.
"We want to show films that are original stories," said the festival's director Cary Sawhney. "Some of the greatest stories come from the margins not from the centre."
Laks Mann, the co-founder of Gaysians, a gay rights group, said it was important for members of the LGBT community in South Asia to see themselves represented in cinema.
LIFF opened on Thursday with the world premiere of Love Sonia, a gritty picture about the real-life story of a young Indian girl who gets trapped in the global sex trade.
Bajpayee, who starred in the movie alongside Demi Moore and Slumdog Millionaire's Freida Pinto, described the film as "disturbing" and said he hoped it would raise awareness about the scourge of human trafficking.
Bajpayee also stars in psychological thriller In the Shadows that has its British premiere on Friday.
At least 18 million slaves are in India - trafficked into brothels, forced to work as manual labourers, or even born into servitude, the Walk Free Foundation, an Australian-based rights group, estimated in 2016.
(Published in an arrangement with Reuters)
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