Bollywood never really showcased queer love. Queer Bollywood fanfiction did

On their drive back from Goa in Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Akash (Aamir Khan) insists he’s "a professional," massaging Sameer’s (Saif Ali Khan) aching back despite Sameer's initial reluctance. Sameer first stiffens, then sighs with pleasure as Akash works the knots out. When Sameer asks where he learned his technique, Akash claims from a "Thai girl," making Sameer blush. Despite the embarrassment, Sameer enjoys the sensual relief, understanding why he values their friendship enough to hesitate when asked to choose between Akash and a partner.

This isn't a scene from Farhan Akhtar’s directorial debut but an example of queer Bollywood fanfiction by an author who goes by the name ‘grus’, whose writing reimagines Bollywood bromances and covert flames as lovers, not just friends. Such stories are written by Indians across the world who identify as queer in some regard.

Scholar Gayatri Gopinath observes in her book Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures (2005): "Coded queer desires are much easier to decode (or recode) when in the diaspora"—when watching Bollywood through what she calls a "queer diasporic viewing practice." While Gopinath analysed how South Asian diasporic filmmakers reworked Bollywood's strategies of queer representation, today's queer Bollywood fanfiction writers are performing their own reclamation project, excavating decades of Hindi cinema and finding a veiled queer archive hiding in plain sight.

Welcome to the wild world of queer Bollywood fanfiction, or fanfics, where Jay and Veeru from Sholay (1975) aren't just yaars, but lovers; Dedh Ishqiya’s (2014) Begum Para and Munniya are more than partners in crime’ and Arjun and Imran's road trip in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) is definitely about finding each other than finding the self. This sprawling digital universe—where young South Asian writers reinterpret Indian cinema’s commercial blockbusters—imagines alternate conclusions: ones where homosocial devotion is never quite as platonic as the censors required.

Queer Bollywood fanfiction dissects longing

Bollywood has always trafficked in what academics term "homosocial bonds"— intense male friendships forming the emotional core of films from Sholay to War (2019). "The entire film was a revenge saga between two male friends-turned-foes," says Namrata Zakaria, journalist and founder-editor of ROLLA media, about War 2 (2025). "Their killer action sequences were injected with softness because they were once buddies. Also, that Hrithik Roshan and NTR Jr. are both handsome and magnetic actors made it all so sexual. No one noticed the female actor."

Similar homosocial intensity appears in Dosti (1964), Anand (1971), Silsila (1981), and Rang De Basanti (2006)—films where male characters embrace tenderly and declare undying allegiance. A Thousand Tiny Daggers by author ‘maleikha’, for example, addresses the chemistry between Aslam Khan and Laxman Pandey in Rang De Basanti and the tragedy therein. "Any good art is subject to multiple interpretations. Was Hamlet obsessed with his mother or his uncle? Traditional works of art, as well as popular culture like Bollywood, are allowing themselves to be open to re-readings in different contexts, and we are here for it," adds Zakaria. 

Actor Anasuya Sengupta, who won the Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes for Best Actress for The Shameless (2024), speaks from her experience as a production designer: "We pour hours into creating visual language. However, often what's perceived isn't necessarily what creators have in mind." Much like studying poetry, says Sengupta, where we dissect the piece to death and are left wondering whether the poet indeed thought of all these things in the first place.

Archiving as Resistance

The numbers tell the story. On Archive of Our Own—a repository of 16 million works—Bollywood fanfic is modest but steadfast. Dostana (2008), has spawned multiple rewrites where the on-screen faux gay romance becomes real. These revisions reimagine Sameer and Kunal as they navigate their queer relationship—from shared glances, to mutual auto-eroticism. One such popular fic is self-described as: "The film Karan Johar could have made."

"When institutions don't recognise you, you build the spaces that will," says Anish Gawande, founder of Pink List India, an archive of politicians supporting LGBTQIA+ rights in the country. "Archives have historically belonged to people with power. Creating your own archive is an act of reclamation." Actor and transgender activist Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju experienced this erasure firsthand. "History is written by the oppressor and conqueror, which is why the queer individual is demonised, turned into comedic relief, or excluded entirely," she says. "There is specific loneliness in being unable to see yourself on screen."

In 2015, Gummaraju decided to document her physical transition on YouTube, and created an archive that went on to reach millions of followers. She later went on to create The Rainbow Pill List, a crowdsourced list of LGBTQIA+-friendly doctors to improve access to affirming care. "Social media allows queer people to tell their own stories removed from the transphobia of mainstream Bollywood," adds Gummaraju.

Distance, Desire, and the courage to reclaim the narrative

"Distance does something to desire," observes Gawande. "Many of us only come out once we leave home. The moment you name yourself, you begin rewriting your past. You allow yourself to say: Yes, I fell wildly in love with John Abraham in Dostana." It is not surprising, then, that the South Asian diaspora constitutes a large part of fanfic writers, rewriting Bollywood’s iconic hits as queer storylines.

But the work isn't just happening far away from home. Within India, queer rewritings unfold in everyday acts. "Drag queens performing to Helen’s songs at Kitty Su, or cut-outs from magazines placed in scrapbooks maintained over years." 

Drag performer Sushant Divgikar—aka Rani Ko-HE-Nur—embodies this reclamation. "Drag and performance art have always been queer-coded. As Indians, the only thing we didn't do is claim the word ‘drag’, but we've been doing drag since forever." Gender-play has been a crucial part of theatre, dance, and films in South Asia for centuries.

India is home to ancient queer cultures, often erased by colonisation. But what stops Bollywood from depicting what fanfic writers see so clearly? "[It] isn't legality, it's fear," argues Gawande. "Fear of backlash, fear of losing markets. We've moved from absence to subtext—but we're still waiting for the unapologetic queer romance." Divgikar thrives on the discomfort that such romance offers when it reaches an unsuspecting audience. "If your heteronormativity is so fragile, I love to see it tickled," she says.

Fanfic does the same—takes Bollywood's beloved bromances and declares: this was gay all along. Sengupta calls it "bravado and courage,” which comes with an essential kind of shamelessness—the kind that is important to encourage future filmmakers to incorporate queer characters more holistically and without hesitation.

Can queer Bollywood fanfiction bridge generations?

“Several authors and readers of queer fanfiction are in their 30s, 40s or 50s” says a fanfic writer. These are people who likely didn’t have a fair chance at a dreamy romance in their early years. Divgikar remembers how young people often tell her about their aunties and uncles sharing her videos on family WhatsApp groups. "These aunties and uncles are my biggest support.” Gummaraju believes all change begins at home, at the dinner table, in the smallest of ways. “You have to have courage to speak to your parents and family, expose them to newer narratives." These Bollywood fanfictions make this happen for many, turning something they’re familiar with into an introduction to queer desires.

In a media landscape that has positioned the hijra community as punchlines, and still treats queerness as a risk, queer Bollywood fanfictions offer something radical. These writers, much like the ones who have pushed the bar for queer stories within legacy media, aren't waiting for the editor’s notes or the director's permission. They're writing the next chapter where their heroes get the love story they deserve—and in a way, they themselves do too. The question isn't whether the characters were ever gay to begin with—it’s how much longer can you pretend that they never could have been?

Curated by Gaysi Family