Feb 25, 2026 5:14pm IST
‘Queer Identity Shouldn’t Be The Only Focus’: Konkona Sen Sharma, Anubhuti Kashyap And Pratibha Ranta On ‘Accused’ (EXCLUSIVE)
"Accused", starring Konkona Sen Sharma and Pratibha Ranta in the lead roles, is set for release on Netflix. While the film centers around a woman accused of sexual misconduct, it also engages with her sexual identity.
In an exclusive conversation with Variety India, director Anubhuti Kashyap, Konkona Sen Sharma and Pratibha Ranta spoke about portraying queer identities in cinema and how they ensured the narrative avoided tokenism.
When asked what they did individually to bring authenticity and rootedness to the queer narrative, writer-director Anubhuti Kashyap explained that everything stemmed from the title itself and the decision to tell the story from the perspective of the accused — in this case, a woman.
She said, “Okay, if it’s a woman accused, do cases like these happen? We did a lot of research. We found that, yes, there are many such cases, especially in Western countries. Even in India, there are documented ones, but they occur more frequently in the UK and the US. So, we started to build a story from there.”
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This approach allowed the filmmakers to integrate a queer relationship organically rather than making it a central statement.
“That allowed us more room and freedom to build in a queer relationship and these characters. Because basing it in India would have meant we had to make a statement about it. But here in this film, we haven’t. So basically, from there on the word ‘accused’ and the character itself — that was our starting point, and we built from there,” she continued.
“So actually, there’s no tokenism in this because there is essentially nothing declarative about the characters. There is no statement being made about them. It’s simply part of their reality. And having said that, it is integral to the story because it adds depth to the accusations and scrutiny the main character faces. We treated it that way, and I think that helped ensure it didn’t come across as tokenism or as a film solely about that. We never wanted the story to focus only on that the story was about everything else,” Kashyap added.
Konkona Sen Sharma echoed this sentiment, saying she was glad to be part of stories where queerness is normalized rather than problematized.
“I’m very glad to have played and been part of a queer couple that’s been so normalized. It just happens to be the case, and it’s not the cause of the film or the issue of the film. You don’t have to introduce a homosexual character or a differently abled character and make that the focus. Our world is populated by people with many identities and affiliations. In fact, all of us have multiple overlapping identities — I’m a mother, a woman, a Bengali, an Indian. Each identity places me within different groups, some larger, some smaller,” she said.
Sharma added, “When somebody is from the queer community, that shouldn’t be the only focus. It is a fundamental part of who they are and how they experience the world, but it is not the only one. That’s what happens here. It becomes a base layer, while many other things unfold around it. It blends organically, which is ideal.”
Pratibha Ranta emphasized that the writing itself helped avoid reductive framing. “I think it’s also written in a way that it doesn’t come across as tokenistic. The story is very layered. It’s about this woman being accused — Dr. Geetika Singh — and how it affects her professional life, her relationships and her family. It’s a world where multiple aspects come together,” she said.
"Accused" premieres on Netflix on Feb. 27, 2026.
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