As 'Heated Rivalry' goes viral, Mumbaikars dive into what makes it popular

This show has made so many queer people believe in love againrdquo Dan Rebello tells us Itrsquos been a long day at work for the primary school teacher but their voice gets animated as we discuss the Heated Rivalry phenomenon thatrsquos taken the world by storm The Canadian show tells the story of two secretly gay ice hockey players Shane and Ilya who go from rivals to loversMulundresident Dan first heard about the show around Christmas when the last episode was about to air The 33yearold who identifies as a transmasc bisexual and is autistic sees themself reflected in many ways on the show They have since watched it eight times and have also read the book of the same name by Rachel Reid that inspired itldquoIt made me take a chance on love againrdquo they say shyly ldquoI liked somebody a year ago but things didnrsquot go well We reconnected over the show and then admitted how we miss each other We decided to just take a chance and make it workrdquoTherersquos a lot of buzz around Heated Rivalryrsquos noholdsbarred depiction of gay sex as well as its emotional range from the fear of being outed to sportsmanship and competitiveness to tender romance and oh so much yearningHeated Rivalry is a love story about two closeted gay ice hockey playersFor the LGBTQIA community itrsquos a powerful thing to see representation in stories that centre queer joy and pleasure rather than trauma ldquoItrsquos a big statement for queer folk to say that the show has made us believe in love because so many of us canrsquot imagine a future with somebody we love or even just being our authentic selvesrdquo Dan emphasisesTherersquos also been some criticism of how much sex the series features Fans have defended it pointing out that a lot of the character development happens in the sex scenes as the male leads progress from furtive hotel room sex to coming to terms with their sexuality and accepting the deep love they hold for each other mdash all dangerous things in the hypermasculine world of ice hockeyGarv Chaturvedi appreciates Heated Rivalry for representation of queer joy PicNimesh DaveFor Thaneresident Garv Chaturvedi a 20yearold pursuing a Bachelorrsquos degree in Mass Media the show is an example of how good storytelling can normalise queer love in the mainstream ldquoTherersquos this lsquosex sellsrsquo narrative around the showrsquos popularity but if you watch the show you will see that the acting the direction the progression of the story all do justice to the book There have been other great shows recently like Heartstopper and Red White and Royal Blue with happy endings A wellmade show that depicts queer individuals as we are mdash in pursuit of love and joy like any other person mdash appeals to everyone and can do a lot to normalise the communityrdquo he saysHeated Rivalry features a lot of intimate scenes between Ilya played by Connor Storrie and Shane Hudson Williams Pics courtesyHeated RivalryldquoQueer portrayal in India on the other hand is unfortunate Media reflects how society thinks and here we have very few stories where queer folk are central characters they are usually used as subplots Or their stories end in tragedy like Aligarhrdquo he adds And therersquos a reason for that From film distributors to OTT executives and even viewers therersquos still a lot of resistance to depicting unapologetic queer love on Indian screensFilmmaker Onir who recently took his new film Pine Cone on the festival circuit recalls a frustrating exchange with a viewer ldquoPine Cone is all about queer desire and it has a lot of intimacy At a screening in India a journalist came up to me and said lsquoItrsquos beautiful but donrsquot you think therersquos a little too much lovemakingrsquo I told her that it was just fourandhalfminutes of lovemaking in a 90minute film People find that to be too much but have no problem sitting through a threehour film with two hours of violence So is the problem you or merdquoOn OTT platforms showrunners such as Rangita Pritish Nandy are pushing the envelope with queer arcs in series like Four More Shots Please The Royals and Modern Love Nandy is yet to watch Heated Rivalry and is sceptical of it ever launching in India ldquoI donrsquot think theyrsquoll be able to release it here because itrsquos got a fair bit of intimacy Not unless they chop it uprdquo she saysAnahita Karthik first started writing queer romances as a way to embrace her bisexual identity PicAshish RajeAmong international movies and shows that have made it to Indian OTT platforms Nandy is a fan of Red White and Royal Blue which is yet another romcom adapted from a book by Casey McQuiston ldquoI just loved the normalcy of it But when I recommend it to people they say lsquoWe donrsquot watch all this What is all this gay loversquordquoRepresentation matters and can change hearts one view at a time Nandy recalls that a very senior investment banker called her one day after season two of Four More Shots Please aired He told her that the show had helped him relate to his daughter who is in a samesex partnership ldquoHe told me lsquoThe normalcy with which you told the story of the lesbian romance arc between Umang and Samara made me feel that I can support my daughter It made me feel like all the bias was in my headrsquordquo says Nandy adding ldquoThat bias exists for even the most educated and privileged viewers The onus is on us as creators to find a language for a twoway conversation with viewers so we can champion causes without dumping too much information on themrdquoOnir was questioned for his decision to feature fourandhalf minutes of intimate scenes between the male leads in his film Pine Cone Pic courtesyOnirShows like Four More Shots Modern Love and Made in Heaven have all successfully done this Itrsquos also a business decision for many platforms ldquoIndia largely has singleTV homes where one family has one TV People are not comfortable watching intimate scenes especially not queer love with their family Younger ones might be watching it on their phones Therersquos certainly curiosity among the audience but perhaps no one wants to admit theyrsquore watching itrdquo says NandyThis seems to be a global issue Heated Rivalry showrunner Jacob Tierney reportedly had to fight to keep the intimate scenes in the show when many studios wanted to axe even kiss scenes until the penultimate episodeOnir too faced a similar problem with his short film We Are Faheem amp Karun The short which explores the chemistry between a security guard from Kerala at a checkpoint and a Kashmiri college student is inspired by the story of a real soldier Onir recently screened the movie in Srinagar ldquoIt is the first ever queer film to have been screened in Kashmir and it was a full houserdquo he says ldquoI would have thought therersquod be producers or distributors reaching out But there is some unspoken resistance most people are only comfortable when queer stories are subtle or invisible seen from a heteronormative gazerdquoTherersquos also Sabar Bonda 2025 film directed by Rohan Parashuram Kanawade It went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival but is yet to be seen on Indian OTT platforms ldquoThere is a lack of will in Indian programmingrdquo says Onir ldquobecause there is very little representation from the queer community It took years for women to demand and get more representation And theyrsquore still fighting misogyny and unequal pay Itrsquoll take time for us too Our stories need to be seen just as another beautiful story and not as a lsquoqueer storyrsquordquoIt wasnrsquot always like this says Prathyush Parasuraman author and cultural critic ldquoWe had erotically exciting queer cinema earlier one of the pioneering films was Bomgay 1996 by Riyadh Wadia which is very erotic and explicit Therersquos a sex scene in the library and you can see Rahul Bosersquos burdquo he says ldquoThere was Summer In My Veins 1999 a documentary by Nishit Saran where we see him come out to his mother on camera There was a lot of queer literature from Hoshang Merchantrsquos poetry to R Raj Raorsquos novel The Boyfriend which is very cruisy and eroticrdquoA turn towards ldquorespectabilityrdquo came about in the 2000s says Parasuraman when ldquothe queer movement was seen to be aligned with the legal fightrdquo ldquoThe movement became more about queer respectability than expression and one way of garnering respectability in India is by erasing the eroticrdquoUmang and Samararsquos romance arc in Four More Shots Please is one of the few desi representations of lesbian love Pic courtesyFour More Shots PleaseWhile cinema still saw some experimentation queer literature took a greater hit Outside of fanfiction sites like Archive Of Our Own AO3 Wattpad the closest thing wersquove seen to queer erotica in recent years is Parasuramanrsquos short story Two Bi Two in an anthology of Mumbai stories The Only City HarperCollins India 2025 Itrsquos a strikingly explicit account of a man who goes cruising in the infamous 2X2 local train compartmentldquoCruising is such an integral part of so many peoplersquos coming of age mdash pun intendedrdquo he tells us ldquoTherersquos something very heated and immediate about the interaction between the characters in the story but therersquos also a tender gesture at the end when the protagonist has to get off at the next station and the other man zips up his pants and smooths the kurta for himrdquoFor many desi queer authors writing is a way to express their gender identity and sexuality and also tie their stories to the reality of Indian society Vivek Mohan an author based in Kochi has written two gay romance novels the second of which Two Boys By The Pond selfpublished in 2025 is partly based on his own love story with his partnerRangita Pritish Nandy and OnirldquoSouth India has quite a few films with queer narratives but not much in books I had also watched a lot of queer movies and shows from abroad but their experiences are not the same as ours All the places I mention in the book are real as are the societal pressures and customs Indian readers will be able to relate to itrdquoSimilarly Mumbaikar Anahita Karthik started writing queer lit as a way to embrace her bisexual identity ldquoEventually though it became more about wanting to write the representation that Irsquove rarely had the chance to seerdquo she tells us Her new book Better Catch Up Krishna Kumar HarperCollins Publishing January 2026 is a biforbi romance set in Mumbai but will be published in the US and UK The protagonist is an IndianAmerican mdash a conscious choice because ldquoitrsquos easier to normalise their coming out journey and make it more joyfulrdquo ldquoI feel like it wouldnrsquot be realistic for most people to have an easy coming out experience in Indiardquo she explainsDan Rebello and Farhad DadyburjorBengalurubased Swati Hedge too made a similar choice to publish her new bipan romance novel As Long As You Loathe Me Penguin Random House March 2026 in the US While LGBTQIA romance is a booming genre internationally ldquoitrsquos a hard sell in Indiardquo ldquoTake my book cover it has two girls looking at each other with flames and hearts around them It explicitly shows a queer romance How many people will be comfortable seen holding this book in India If a parent sees their teen reading it will they be okay with itrdquoThe 29yearold author and freelance editor has several romcoms to her name but hadnrsquot thought of writing a queer story until she came out as bisexual in 2022 ldquoI wouldnrsquot have known what a queer personrsquos journey is likerdquo she says ldquoIf someone outside the community writes a story it takes away the opportunity to give a voice to someone from the community mdash whether thatrsquos queer black or brown stories When we tell someone elsersquos story itrsquos also hard to separate that from titillation and fetishisationrdquoThere has been some criticism for the book series behind Heated Rivalry as well regarding this with questions about why a woman is writing novels about gay men On the other hand under Jacob Tierney a gay male director the show has been praised for its deep understanding of gay intimacySwati Hegde and Vivek MohanMeanwhile in the Indian publishing industry the tide finally seems to be turning Westland Books last year became one of the first in the country to launch a brand new imprint for LGBTQIA stories called Queer Directions QD It is being helmed by Sanghamitra Biswas who is also the publisher at Westlandrsquos other imprint Tranquebar ldquoThere is space and a need for the more serious books and memoirs from the queer community but we also want to publish books that are fun quick to read and speak to a larger audiencerdquo she says ldquoIrsquom now looking for those outandout romcoms and slice of life stories that are going to focus on the fun and exciting parts of being queerrdquo The Indian industry is more conservative than its international counterparts she admits Where LGBTQIA romances are churned out every couple of weeks in the US itrsquos slow going here But thatrsquos also partly because submissions are low Ambar Sahil Chatterjee literary agent with A Suitable Agency says hersquos always on the lookout for queer manuscripts ldquoBut we donrsquot see enough of them Since the Supreme Court decriminalised Section 377 publishers have come alive to the fact that this is an untapped market I donrsquot think any publisher here will be opposed to publishing in this space but the challenge is to find wellwritten stories that resonate with readersrdquoFarhad Dadyburjorrsquos new book Queerly Beloved Penguin Random House India February 2026 is the first desi gay romcom wersquove seen from a mainstream publication in a few years Queerly Beloved is as masala as it gets set around a big fat Indian gay wedding ldquoI canrsquot believe no onersquos done that yet hererdquo he says ldquoInternationally just December 2025 saw close to 200 LGBTQthemed books released Here we donrsquot get to see many of those titles in our bookstoresrdquo he saysThere is a lot of curiosity though from queer and cishet folk alike During a recent literature event organised by Read A Kitaab and Mumbai Queer Pride as part of Pride month participants were keen to learn about queer literature says Dadyburjor Every show movie and book will push the needle a little further he hopes ldquoYoursquoll see in five years wersquoll be having an entirely different conversation about thisrdquo he foretells Heated Rivalry fan Dan for one is more than ready ldquoWersquore done with trauma porn Queer people want hope give us joy give us loverdquoWhy are straight women crazy about itAll through December every Saturday night Saumya and her roommate had their own ritual switch on their VPN service and stream the latest episode of Heated RivalryldquoThere is so much tenderness and yearning between Shane and Ilya the main charactersrdquo says Saumya ldquoIt doesnrsquot hurt that the actors are easy on the eyes But it wasnrsquot until I watched the show that I realised what I had been missing in my relationships with men Women are so used to the heavy lifting when it comes to emotional labour both in our lives and on screen that it was a complete revelation to see two men being vulnerable with each otherrdquoShe has since also read the book that inspired the show and has gone on to discover other titles in the MM malemale romance genre also known as Boysrsquo Love or Yaoi In fact cisheterosexual women form one of the biggest fan bases for the genre In a 2022 survey of readers on fanfiction portal AO3 Archive Of Our Own researchers from the University of Central Florida found that cishet women form 537 per cent of the readers of queer romance or slash fiction such as MM or FFA straight woman enjoying gay smut might seem counterintuitive but Saumya explains ldquoWith cishet erotica I canrsquot help but see myself in the female characterrsquos role In gay romance I can either take myself out of the equation entirely or enjoy the fantasy from either characterrsquos gaze Also with two men we see an equality in the equation that sadly many women may never experience with a manrdquoMore LGBTQIA storiesLooking for sapphic nonbinary and bisexual representation Catch Jhumkewali a play staged by Mumbaibased indie theatre group Haus of Bhaus Itrsquos a sweet sapphic comingofage tale of two college students There are also a couple of desi authors writing romcoms with IndianAmerican bisexual characters such as Swati Hegdersquos As Long As You Loathe Me Penguin US and Anahita Karthikrsquos Better Catch Up Krishna Kumar What is the show aboutHeated Rivalry is a Canadian show about two secretly gay ice hockey players Shane Hudson Williams and Ilya Connor Storrie who go from rivals to lovers The sixepisode series tracks their journey from furtive hotel hookups to falling in love and eventually coming out to the family It is based on the famous Game Changers book series by Rachel Reid which has a sizeable fanbase Directed by Jacob Tierney the show was produced by Canadian streaming platform Crave and funded by taxpayers and was then picked up HBO Max in the US It is yet to be aired on any OTT platform in IndiaFive desi books to cure your Heated Rivalry hangovergtgt Queerly Beloved by Farhad Dadyburjor to be released by Penguin Random House India in February 2026gtgt Unfolding by Rahul Singh published by Harper Collins Publishing India in January 2026gtgt Love in the Time of Caste A Dalitfeminist anthology of love stories published by Zubaan Books in 2026gtgt Chikamma Tours Pvt Ltd by Unmana published by Tranquebar Westland Books in 2024gtgt Falling Into Place by Sheryn Munir released by Ylva Publishing in 2018