#romil and jugal
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Indian BL? FROM 2017????
There's an Indian BL from 2017 that I just watched. And I have incoherent thoughts
Before I continue, massive thanks to my bestie @anixknowsnothin for telling me about this show and proofreading the post for me. You don't even watch bl so I have no idea how you found this, but I'm incredibly grateful nonetheless
Here's the link to where I watched the show from, there's a glitch in the first episode subs where the subs seem to be from another show entirely, but it's only for the first ep and about 50% of the dialogue is in English anyways, so it shouldn't be hard to follow.(My ask box is also always open if there's a specific dialogue/scene in Hindi that you want the translation of)
Edit: The link seems to be region locked, so to watch it you can use a vpn and set your region to India, otherwise the episodes are available on youtube, albeit without subs
Note:- this post is going to have a few mild spoilers throughout, but I'll flag major spoilers in red
It's no secret that India is fairly behind when it comes to queer love shows if we compare it to other Asian countries. While it has a handful of great queer shows and movies, it's still quite a small quantity. Additionally, before this, I'd never watched an Indian show that felt like I was watching a bl (if you have recs, please send them my way!!). I'm not going to get into the technicalities of what feels like a bl and doesn't, because honestly, I'm not completely sure myself. For now, I'm just going based off of vibes and feelings, and this show felt like a bl through and through.
Titled 'Romil and Jugal' after its main characters, the story is a modern, desi, bl remake of the classic story...
Romeo and Juliet
Well, Bad Buddy was the first Thai bl I ever watched, so Romil and Jugal being the first Indian BL I watched just feels right, no?
I didn't actually know that the story was based off of Romeo and Juliet till the second episode, because I didn't bother looking for a synopsis, and jumped right in. However, it's links to Romeo and Juliet quickly became apparent, around the same time I started to see similarities between this show and Bad Buddy. I also did not know that this show came out in 2017 before I googled it, having already watched the entire thing, which was a pretty huge shock, because this BL is progressive by 2024 India standards.
Alright, enough of my rambling. Here's a synopsis of the show in case you haven't heard of it. (I couldn't find an official one, so I did my best to write a spoiler free synopsis)
Ramya happens to start talking to a slightly older woman at an airport, who believes that there is no romance in the younger generation. To prove her wrong, Ramya decides to tell the older woman her brother's love story. The story from the past is shown to us as Ramya narrates it to the woman in the present.
Jugal is a closeted 19-year-old who lives with his parents. One day, a family moves into the house next door, and Jugal immediately falls for the son, Romil. The two of them attend the same college, and eventually become friends. The two of them eventually get together, but have to face the challenges of a homophobic society and having parents that hate each other.
I was a little skeptical of the show going in, but the show surpassed all of my expectations in the best way possible. It's no masterpiece, and it has its flaws, but it was far better than what I expected. It had both comical elements and darker themes, and it did not shy away from exploring the darker themes at all. Oh, and it has a few musical numbers. What did you expect? This is India after all.
The show is 10 episodes long, with 20 minutes per episode, and so it does unfortunately fall into some of the pitfalls that shorter shows tend to fall into, namely underdeveloped relationships and rushed endings. I did end up feeling a little bit like it didn't make sense for the pair to sacrifice and suffer as much as they did because they hadn't known each other for very long, and I felt like they should have been given more time to fall in love with each other. But it also could be argued that the show stays true to the play, and Romil and Jugal are dumb teenagers who make mistakes and stick with each other through them. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.
One thing that I loved the show for was that it showed us that the relationship is not all sunshine and rainbows. They argue, they break up, they get back together, and they do argue even after that. But every time, they eventually work through the issue and reconcile. The show even depicts Romil dealing with internalized homophobia and struggling to reconcile with the fact that he will never be who his family wants him to be. Although I do wish they'd have had more time to explore this, I'd say it was decently depicted and handled. The show really delves into how children are forced to uphold their family's wishes and are constantly put under pressure to make them proud. Although it clearly affects both of them, it's more obvious with Romil, who is expected by his family to date and marry the daughter of his father's boss, whom they think he is dating. There's a metaphor along this theme too, where Romil pretends to like the mango shake that his mom has been making for him since he was a kid, even though he hates it, and when he tries to tell her, he has to act like it was a joke to spare her feelings. The show also goes into the communal mindset of basing your actions off "what will people think?", and you can see how a lot of the characters' actions throughout the show are haunted by this question. Some of Romil and Jugal's earlier disagreements are due to this very mindset.
The show also very candidly depicts the extreme homophobia of society in India. Romil and Jugal had to constantly hide who they were, always having to keep up a mask and I felt that reach somewhere deep inside me. When the pair come out, the show really shows how ugly homophobia can be in India. Their parents immediately disown them. They're mocked in college and wrongfully suspended for a fight that was provoked by other students. Very, very few people stand with them, and the pair very quickly realize that now that they are out, they simply cannot live in the city anymore. So with the help of Jugal's best friend and her mother, they flee to Mumbai, where they get jobs and live as paying guests with a friend of the aforementioned mother. But, even in Mumbai, the masks stay up. They have to act like cousins, for fear of being persecuted. The series depicted the worst-case scenario that so many of us live in fear of, so watching it was something of a cathartic experience for me.
Another thing that the show did quite well is showing how different people and their mindsets can be. Jugal's best friend, Ahalya, and her mom are very supportive, and they help the pair out quite a bit. Ahalya's mother provided a safe house for the pair and helped them find a fresh start. Meanwhile, Romil and Jugal's parents are incredibly homophobic. There was a scene that really stuck with me, (mild spoiler ahead, skip to the last sentence of the paragraph) where Ahalya's mother came across Jugal's mother, who prided herself on being educated and well-read, searching up how to cure homosexuality. Ahalya's mother then tells her off for calling herself educated yet believing that homosexuality is an illness. It is so important to me that the show depicted both the violent homophobia that permeates Indian society and the surprising, warm acceptance that one can find.
One final thing that I loved about this show so, so much is just how authentically Indian it feels. Asian cultures share a lot in common, but they also have their differences, so seeing a show where I can imagine encountering the characters in real life is really amazing. Rather than something big, it was little things sprinkled throughout the story that warmed my heart. The story felt like something I could hear the local aunties gossiping about. The way it depicts queerness in India hits incredibly close to home.
One thing I've learned watching Asian bls is that the ending of a show can make it or break it, but with this one, I'm stuck. The best way I can describe the ending is absolutely insane and incredibly Bollywood.
I believe this show was supposed to get a second season because the last two minutes of the show leave us with a massive cliffhanger. Now, it's been 7 years, so a second season is unlikely, so I'm simply pretending that the last two minutes of the show never happened. But the ending has so much more to it than just this (Major spoilers for the ending up ahead. I mean it when I say major, this is like going into Bad Buddy knowing that they're going to trick their parents in the end).
About halfway through the show, I remembered what play it was based upon and realized that there was a very real possibility that Romil and Jugal would die. The first half of the last episode leads up to this, telling us that they died when reconciling after an argument in the middle of the road when they were hit by a truck. We get a super emotional scene (yes, I cried) where the two families somewhat reconcile in their grief as they go to the police station to identify the bodies. Except... they're not dead, which is revealed when Romil's father hugs Romil's (not) dead body. They reveal that they planned this to show their family that they still loved their sons. I did say it was like PatPran tricking their parents in the end, didn't I? So the families reunite, Romil and Jugal get jobs in New Zealand and get married, and return to India for a wedding celebration (yes, I cried. again). The ending does feel slightly rushed, but if I'm being honest, it wasn't as terrible as it could have been. Believing that your child is dead for a bit is a somewhat justifiable reason for a sudden change of heart. There's a part where Romil and Jugal tell their parents that if they choose acceptance, they can reconcile, but if they choose to remain prejudiced, Romil and Jugal can simply get back on the stretchers, because they'll be as good as dead to their families anyways and it is *chef's kiss*.
All in all, the show was surprisingly heartfelt and poignant. It had me laughing, kicking my feet and even crying. There's a lot more about this show that I could talk about, but I'm going to stop here for now, and I'll try to write more on it later. This show really does deserve more recognition than it has, and I'm almost mad at myself for not knowing about it before. Am I being really biased when talking about this show? Absolutely. But I do think that this show is a worthwhile watch, and I'd really like to see what other people on here think of the show, especially because I'm aware that I am biased towards this show.
I'm tagging a few people who I know might be interested/have some thoughts about the show because this is a show that I really want to hear other people's opinions on and have conversations about, so I hope you guys don't mind!
@waitmyturtles @lurkingshan @bengiyo @neuroticbookworm
#good lord this post is almost 2k words#i think this is the longest post i have ever written#and there's more thoughts rattling around in my brain about this show#did i convince you to watch the show?#please say yes#i need people to talk to about this show#bl recs#indian bl#indian bl recs#romil and jugal#romil & jugal#bad buddy#i mean it's related#how does everything i write about somehow find it's way to that goddam show#but seriously romil and jugal was surprisingly very good#i did not expect it at all#but i have never been so glad to be proven wrong
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Romil & Jugal (India, 2017) starring Manraj Singh & Rajeev Siddhartha
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romil and jugal walked so pat and pran could rUN
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Romil and Jugal
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My main criteria for labelling something as BL are tropes galore and a heavy focus on romance and what could be more inherently trope-romantic (although het) than Romeo and Juliet? So I'm calling Romil and Jugal (2017) a BL, at least for now. I think I've managed to find it with English subs. Fingers crossed for all ten episodes being present and subbed.
For now I'll insist that Romil and Jugal can be called a BL despite the lack of equality bubble.
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Never thought I'd get indian serial like dramatic shots for a gay romantic show , but here I am watching it
#this is about romil and jugal to be clear#there are quite a lot of well made indian queer web series that I've been watching and enjoying lately#and it feels so good to have them#some even came out when sec 377 was still upheld and still had intimate queer scenes challenging the law
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Hey, if possible can I get a list of all lgbt indian films. I just came to know about Maja Ma. So seriously I need to start watching indian lgbt rep. Tv Show recommendations are also totally cool
Ah dude...
Fire
Margarita with a straw
Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan
Badhaai Do
Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To
Cobalt Blue
Chandigarh Kare Ashiqui
These are off the top of my head Bollywood movies. There are I'm sure a lot more regional movies and bollywood niche movies that have queer representation.
The TV shows I can think of only have queer side characters but there are 2-3 youtube series that feature queer main people
There's All About Section 377 and the second part Still About Section 377 that's kinda cringe but still pretty sweet.
There's Romil and Jugal (which i haven't watched) which is a proper web series. There's quite a lot of short stories on YouTube which feature queerness too.
Hopefully others can add on it!
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omg faiza what desi queer film is that with dhruv?? also idk if you know this but have you heard of romil and jugal? its a queer desi show based on romeo and juliet, ive yet to finish it bc Feelings so idk how it ends but i really love it a lot, its so rare to find queer desi stuff and im so so happy that i found it 🥹
hiiii anon!!! okay so these 2 are two characters called dhruv and faruq, and they're from a show called class on netflix (its basically a desi version of elite, and dhruv and faruq are the desi version of omar and ander). and yuuuup, i have heard of romil and jugal!!!
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So I decided to marathon gay indian movies...
When a hyperfixation kicks in, it kicks fucking hard. I started yesterday with a indian gay shortfilm called Sisak, then other called Amen; and today, I've already watched the series Romil & Jugal, and the movies Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Loev and Dear Dad.
Thus far, Loev has been my fave movie of them all --I highly appreciate the different angle of the relationship even when it's so damn hurting. Sisak was heartbreaking, Amen was bittersweet. R&J was a rollercoaster. Dear Dad was also lovely, and with happy ending!
Now, I'm watching Cobalt Blue and I saw it's originally a novel, so of course I must read it (specially to draw comparatives because I like to do that with different media). And I'm loving it.
And after that, I just have Funny Boy and Badhaai Do to watch. Then, I'll move to read some gay indian novels and autobiographies.
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10 Indian LGBTQ Web Series on Same Sex Love Relationships
Digital entertainment sites have been introducing a lot of bold content in recent months. Web series is one such content that does not have to face censorship like films and TV shows. Although there are web series that feature gay and lesbian characters, there are others that are exclusively about same-sex love and relationships. Below is my list of Indian web series that have gay and lesbian characters.
Here are the list of LGBTQ Web Series that you can watch online
Romil And Jugal
This is a gay web series from the Internet platform ALTBalaji, known for bold content. Romil and Jugal recreate Romeo and Juliet with a twist. Manraj Singh and Rajeev Siddhartha play the gay couple in this series. The couple engages in passionate kisses and intimate scenes, but you will need to have a paid ALTBalaji subscription to watch the entire series
The Other Love Story
In this Web Series, the lead actors are heterosexuals who admitted to having trouble kissing at the beginning. The two lead characters, Shweta Gupta and Spoorthi Gumaste, said that they had trouble expressing lesbian love because they were not experienced in performing that act. The web series is available on YouTube.
Love Life & Screw up
This web series is a story about the romantic relationships of lesbian and gay couples. Zeenat Aman plays a pivotal role in this web series, acting in the story. The other Cast of this Series are Mita Vashisht, Dolly Thakore, Kapil Kaustub Sharma, Yuvraaj Parashar, Diandra Soares, Sonali Raut, Akshay Sethi, Shushant Divgikr, Sezal Sharma, Vibhoutee Sharma, Meghaa, Shipra Kasana, Mahi Sharma, Ruchita Tahiliani, Ashish Sachdeva, Ashish Khatri, Riyaaz Qureshi and Rahul Vyaas. There is a lot going on within this series where Bigg Boss contestant Diandra Soares kisses Mahi Sharma and Sonali Raut & Yuvraj Parashar’s shower scene is made news. The series is available on YouTube.
UNTAG
This is the story of 6 individuals who have their own issues and problems. However, the story is mainly focused on one character and her struggles, the fat girl. Meiyang Chang and Naveen Polishetty plays the Gay characters in the show. They are joined by VJ Andy, Dipannita Sharma and Shiv Pandit.
All About Section 377
This is a fictional series about a heterosexual man living with two gay men. The series aims to educate the viewers on the struggles faced by the LGBT community in India. Amit Khanna and Ankit Bhatia play the gay couple while Gulshan Nain plays the straight man. You can watch this Web Series on YouTube.
Dev DD
Dev DD is the female version of the classic Devdas. Devika is a woman whose addiction to sex and alcohol threatens her life. She is the daughter of a rich businessman and an alcoholic wife. Her boyfriends are both men who are in love with her and have similar backgrounds. Their relationship is based on mutual respect and understanding. This web-series is a fun-filled romantic comedy with some of the hottest kisses.
Class of 2017
This is a Teenage Web Series from Ekta Kapoor’s ALTBalaji, starring Rohan Shah and Gaurav Sharma. The series revolves around a young gay couple and the challenges they face in their relationship. The series features a couple of on-screen kisses, which the viewer can watch. The other cast of this Series include Shweta Bajpai, Krissann Barretto, Anshuman Malhotra, Rohit Suchanti, Ashish Chanchlani and Pooja S Jadhav.
Twisted
Twisted is a romantic-thriller web series from Vikram Bhatt starring Nia Sharma and Namit Khanna. Their was a queer twist in the story where Alia and her live-in-relationship girlfriend Dr. Zara Khan indulged in some intimate kissing and lovemaking. You can watch this series on YouTube.
Tanlines
Tanlines is centered around six teenagers who take a holiday together after college. Mehak and Prachi are lesbians and their secret comes out in the open in the web series. Raviza Chauhan and Sachi Maker portray the role of the lesbian couple. You can watch this interesting web series on SonyLiv and YouTube.
Confessions It’s Complicated
This web series tells the story of three girls: Nupur Murthy from Coimbatore, Raka Ghosh from Kolkata and Sameera Saxena from New Delhi start their career in Mumbai with a news organization, Pulse. They are exposed to a city they have never been before. Their stories are intertwined with the lives of the city dwellers, and how they manage the challenges they face. The character endorsing the sponsor products in every episode. You can watch this Web Series on YouTube.
Many consider LGBTQ relationships to be unconventional, and many consider them to be a deadly disease! Love is not a crime, and every individual deserves the right to experience love. Let us not judge people based on their sexual preferences. Hopefully, The web series helps some more people to come out of the closet.
Source: https://www.decadeslife.com/10-indian-lgbtq-web-series-on-same-sex-love-relationships/
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OMFG INDIA HAS A BL.
Other than SMZS that is.
And i will never shut up about how it is so fucking similar to BB. The only difference is it's friends to lovers bc literally everything else is almost the same.
Secret relationship , secret pining , specified gay character, Romeo and Juliet plot (but also has homophobic parents and it's done rather realistically ngl)
Hell , even BB Moments are in there. Winking=flirting , pinkie touch , balcony (rooftop) is the site of the first kiss
We even have a supportive friend and her mom is AWESOME. She did so much for them when they needed support and i agree with her on a spiritual level on everything she said. Meher you have a really cool mom
AND they talk and practise safe sex. UGH never thought I'd see smth like that in India anytime soon.
And coming from someone who watched the entire thing without having to read the subtitles for once in my life , the acting and chemistry is pretty good. Much more than what i expected really
It's not that long , about as much as Light on me ( nearly 4 hours) but i watched it in one sitting even tho i have school tmr. God help me but i have no regrets.
AND THE PLOT TWIST. OH THE GODDAMN PLOT TWIST. THAT JUST PUT THE LAST NAIL IN THE COFFIN FOR ME. ROMIL AND JUGAL= INDIAN BAD BUDDY WITH EXTRA ANGST
Basically , it's not amazing , but it is pretty damn good. And especially taking into consideration the fact that this is prolly India's first actual bl series that ticks all boxes to count as bl. If people keep making stuff like this , i have hope that India will enter the bl game
(but please keep in mind the bar is gonna be really low for expectations. Don't expect bad buddy level stuff from it since you won't get it. Bad Buddy came around after nearly 7-8 years since bl got popular. It was better than I thought India was capable of making and that's what I mean to say)
#bl series#indian bl series#Romil and Jugal#bad buddy#i am genuinely shocked at how nice it was#definately gonna re-watch
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So I have this far-fetched theory…
A couple of years ago I watched this Indian BL series « Romil and Jugal » which was also an adaptation of Romeo&Juliet. In the end they faked their own deaths so that their families could be tricked into realizing what matters most lol it got crazy but it worked.
What if, and this is literally a shot in the dark, Bad Buddy pulls a similar stunt where the end goal is to make their families realize the ridiculousness of this feud.
Obviously this won’t happen because Bad Buddy is a lil more rooted in reality but I thought it would be a fun scenario.
#romil&jugal had their relationship problems which was beautifully illustrated in the show but they were each other’s RideorDie#and I feel like the show could possibly head in that direction#lol i just had this thought while working and I had to write it down before I forget#Romil and Jugal#bad buddy#text
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Romil's mom reading the texts on his phone when he is sleeping is sooooo relatable
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Romil and Jugal has to be one of my top bl series from Indian thus far. When I first found out about it while looking for some new LGBT dramas to watch months ago, at first I was skeptical. Because my heart was broken by an Indian bl movie that left me hanging but tempted by the description of it I gave it a chance. And it didn't disappoint.
Touching on how being gay in india's like, being in love with your guy friend and the parents opinion on it. However, it took me on an emotional rollercoaster that had me on my toes and unable to look away.
I'd recommend anyone interested in bl or LGBT dramas to watch, if you're up for it. I was still thinking about and I knew I had to post about it. I guess that's all I have to say or I'll end up spoiling it being the emotional cancer I am. 😅
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Guess who found a new bl show with a gay disaster protagonist!!
It's me.
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