EXCLUSIVE: I was allowed to have both girlfriends & boyfriends & that is something Indians need to work on - VJ Andy

By Rasika Deshpande

Updated on Jan 11, 2017 | 01:13 AM IST | 878.6K

The word is filled with people who love poking their noses in others business. The impatience within leads them to jump on to conclusions, being judgmental and typecasting a person. Be good, nasty or naive, the ones who want to gossip, will gossip and pass comments. But it is then upto you to decide what needs to be ignored.

Recently, while talking to us, VJ Andy expounded on how he has always been wrongly tagged as a gay or for that matter even a bitch! "I had always been tagged as a gay, homosexual and that has a lot of connotations in one's life. This has been happening since I was a child. But I was lucky enough to have great parents. They never told me to behave in a particular way. I was lucky enough to have always got backing from them. I was allowed to have girlfriends, boyfriends and without any issues. That is something that needs to be worked on in the Indian community. Not just homosexuality, but the freedom to choose what to do in life, personal or professional. I have said NO to a lot of work, because they would just ask me to play the role of a gay and that in itself is putting a tag on someone." He further said, "I was always tagged as the mean guy. But I call it affectionately mocking which is completely different from being bitchy. If I am telling it to you on your face, that doesn't make me a bitch. If I am gossiping about you behind your back, then I am a bitch. There's a difference."

Was there any kind of trauma that followed with the constant tagging?! Ask this, and Andy says, "I was called doghla, dhonngi, dramebaaz, and all especially in the BB house and of course, it did affect me because I knew I wasn't like this. But it was also thrown upon me to make other people feel better about themselves. So I took it in their stride, but that was also because I was inside the BB house." "And yes! I am very lucky that got to participate in BB. It has been the turning point of my career. People now know who I am in real. There are celeb moms who love me. I was thrown into BB with the tag of- 'He must play the character of Gay.' But I broke that right from the very first day. I am no more seen for the person with whom I am sleeping with, I am seen for the work that I do and things that I stand for, for what they say. I want it exactly to happen to the gays, homosexual, transsexual etc. They should be known for their work and not for their apparent tag and for whom they sleep with. Today, the youth is burdened with a lot of tags and responsibilities of how to behave and choose careers, etc. Everybody is tagged not just at school but also by parents, friends, etc. That has become unbearable for youth. But I feel they have much more liberation and exposure to prove themselves through social media," said the VJ turned actor.

VJ Andy who is playing a vital role that of a 'bitchy' guy in the recenlty released web-series 'Untag', revealed what made him take up this offer after refusing to umpteen number of other projects. "A show like Untag portrays the modern Indian thinking into the right light. It depicts the exact modern Indian culture. It was very important for me to take up this offer. There's no good to taking up a random tag if it isn't going to help the society in any way. It's better to say no," he said.

While talking about his role in the show, Andy shared, "Cyrus (my character) has himself given the self-proclaimed tag of being Bitchy. He is self-aware and full of himself and will talk about you behind your back. It kind of reminded me of Komolika from Kasauti... I know Urvashi (Dholakia) very well and got the entire crux of the character from her as to how to go about it. I spoke to a lot of friends who are gay and who are also these bitchy ones. I realized that playing the role of Cyrus, a three-dimension character was important. Cyrus and I are very different from one another. So I was hesitant to take up the role initially. But once I got the crux of my character, I thought, oh it isn't so bad!" he quipped.