Bollywood / Ayushmann says same-sex marriages legal in India, tweets clarification

Ayushmann Khurrana has acknowledged that he made an incorrect comment about same-sex marriages in India during an interview. The actor took to Twitter on Tuesday to issue a clarification.

“A genuine slip here though I really wish same-sex marriages get legal in India,” he wrote in his tweet. Ayushmann had said in an interview to The Times of India that he is happy about the country legalising same-sex marriages in India.

“We are really proud that we are supporting the community. Our country is very progressive that it legalised same-sex marriages,” he said in the interview. However, the Supreme Court only decriminalised homosexuality in its monumental 2018 verdict. Same-sex marriages were not legalised in the same.

Ayushmann plays a gay man in his upcoming film, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan.Talking about it, he told IANS that many from the Hindi film industry asked him to re-think over playing a gay man on screen. “Their (family’s) confidence in me and my dreams has made me who I’m today, has made me what I stand for and I can’t thank them enough. Doing Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan was one of the most important decisions of my life. A lot of people from the industry asked me to re-think this because no leading hero has ever portrayed a gay man on screen. But I knew, this stereotype needed to be shattered and the time to change it, is now. I somehow knew I had to do it and take the plunge,” he said.

On Republic Day, Ayushmann shared a picture in which he was seen waving the national flag in one hand and the pride flag in other. He wrote in the caption of the picture, “Let equality triumph! Let’s make this year all about spreading, sharing, and receiving love!”

Helmed by Hitesh Kewalya and produced by Bhushan Kumar, the film is the second instalment of Shubh Mangal Saavdhan which was released in 2017. It is set to hit the theatres on February 21.