3 RITUPARNO GHOSH, SART ORIAL CODES AND THE QUEER BENGALI Y OUTH Rohit K. Dasgupta and Kaustav Bakshi INTRODUCTION 1 In this chapter we examine Rituparno Ghosh, a queer filmmaker from Bengal, India, who left an indelible mark on the public consciousness and sartorial identity of young Bengali queer men in contemporary India. Since emerging onto the public stage with his first film Hirer Angti (The Diamond Ring) in 1992, and even before formally ‘coming out’ with visible sartorial markers, Rituparno experimented with his wardrobe through pushing male fashion to its androgynous limits. His evolving style was a manifestation of the abstract notion of an androgynous artist which he attributed to his cultural mentor, the Nobel laureate and national poet, Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941). In a number of newspaper and magazine articles which came out following Ghosh's death on 30 May 2013, considerable space was devoted to recollecting his androgynous approach towards fashion and style. Whilst Kolkata- based designers like Sharbari Dutta are credited for popularising a flamboyant, non-western fashion aesthetic for men during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ghosh had already set a precedent. SSAYC Chapter 3—22/3/2018—NANDHINI.P—572749—IBTauris 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37