Those who’ve seen the Malayalam cop thriller Mumbai Police can never forget its jaw-dropping climax, the moment when Prithviraj Sukumaran’s character is revealed to be a closeted gay man, battling an identity crisis in a deeply homophobic society. The twist, radical and ahead of its time, stunned audiences and critics alike. The film was widely celebrated upon its release, and Prithviraj was lauded for portraying such a layered, unconventional character in a genre typically driven by macho stereotypes. Now, in a recent interview with YouTuber Nayandeep Rakshit, the actor opened up about how he came on board the film and why its presentation of queerness was “truly against the grain.”
“See, I just follow my instinct. If something appeals to me, I pursue it. That’s all. Regarding Mumbai Police, you know, the director, the writers, and I, we were developing that film, and we had reached a point in the screenplay where all of us were stuck, right? And we didn’t know how we were going to take it forward from there,” Prithviraj shared.
He added, “Then, a couple of months later, I remember, late at night, Roshan, the director, called me and said, ‘You know, long back when we spoke about cinema, you told me that you would do anything for cinema.’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And he goes, ‘You still stick to that?’ I said, ‘Yeah, of course I do.’ He said, ‘I think we might have landed on something.’ I said, ‘Okay, cool, let’s meet.’ So we met, and they told me this twist at the end, and I was genuinely shocked. I said, ‘If I’m shocked listening to this, and if the audience has the same reaction, then the film works.’”
Speaking candidly about the risks involved at the time, Prithviraj highlighted how unique the character truly was: “What was truly risky about Mumbai Police, in terms of an actor doing that back then, was not just the fact that a mainstream, so-called lead was playing a gay man, but the portrayal itself. The character was nothing like how gay men were shown in mainstream cinema. He was this macho, violent, alpha policeman whose sexual orientation happened to be gay. That was truly against the grain. And I thought that would be a path-breaking film — and it was.”
Prithviraj on rejecting Karan Johar’s segment of Bombay Talkies
In the same conversation, Prithviraj also revealed that he turned down an opportunity to work in Karan Johar’s segment of Bombay Talkies, the 2013 anthology film, primarily because the role was too similar to what he had just done in Mumbai Police.
“Karan had spoken to me about this, the film he did in the anthology called Bombay Talkies. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be a part of it for two reasons. One, there were genuine issues with my schedule and dates. And two, at that point, I had just finished shooting another film where I played a gay man, and I didn’t want to do similar characters in two back-to-back projects. But it was a wonderful script. I later saw the film, and it was beautifully performed by Randeep Hooda. I did miss the opportunity to work with Karan as a director, which I hope will happen at some point in life.”
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Currently, Prithviraj is promoting his upcoming film Sarzameen, which also stars Kajol and Ibrahim Ali Khan. This marks Ibrahim’s second outing after the critical and commercial failure of his debut film Nadaaniyan. Meanwhile, in an attempt to bring Mumbai Police to a pan-India audience, Bollywood remade the film earlier this year as Deva, with Shahid Kapoor in the lead. However, the remake failed to recreate the original’s impact and underperformed at the box office.
