When Pratik Gandhi came on board Modern Love Mumbai to tell a same-sex love story, he had a singular concern — that the LGBTQiA+ romance should not take the aid of comedy to make its point, as Bollywood is wont to do. Director Hansal Mehta shared the opinion, and thus, was born their short film, Baai. “We didn’t want to [portray] it in a caricaturish way. We never wanted to take the shield of comedy. Whenever you speak about this subject, the biggest tool that [filmmakers] use is comedy. But we didn’t want this emotion to be diluted,” begins Gandhi. 

The Amazon Prime Video offering, like its American counterpart, is inspired by the New York Times column, and sees six acclaimed directors team up to tell distinct love stories rooted in Mumbai. Baai, co-written by Mehta and Ankur Pathak, sees Gandhi as Manzar Ali, who struggles to tell his truth to the person he loves the most. “Manzar comes from a joint orthodox family with different values. He is constantly fighting fear. When everyone around rejects the truth, you question yourself and go into self-doubt. I understood his journey when I performed the part. [Otherwise] it gets difficult to understand what they go through.”