Natasha was in her first year of college when she made a new female friend that she liked — a lot. “Up until that point, I was very much with guys and didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. A bunch of my friends began asking me if I liked her just as a friend, but I laughed it off,” says the 23-year-old economic researcher. The question of what this meant soon turned into a slow realisation that she is bisexual. She didn’t tell her parents until earlier this year, and while they were supportive, her mother asked her the one question a lot of young people face — if you like both, why not just go with a guy and have a ‘normal’ life?
In the past few years, more and more bisexual people have started coming out of the closet, not just to their families but even publicly on their social media feeds. Though Bollywood has largely skirted around bisexuality with the exception of Margarita with a Straw, the popular web series Four More Shots Please! has Bani playing a bisexual gym trainer. The actor says she had no qualms about playing Umang. “The cool thing about Umang’s character is that she doesn’t feel any shame for who she is, which is why she comes out to her family,” Bani said in an interview.