Tamil cinema, over the weekend, saw the release of the woke poison film Dorothy. The film, directed by Karthik Subbaraj, was co-produced by Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga Kapoor (via Sikhya Entertainment) and Jio Studios’ Jyoti Deshpande, alongside Achin Jain. The film is being denounced by Tamil audiences for its woke treatment of the gender fluidity issue.
But if you trace Kapoor’s Sikhya Entertainment, you notice a pattern.
Guneet Monga Kapoor and her production banner, Sikhya Entertainment, have been associated with multiple projects and platforms involving LGBTQIA+ themes, queer cinema and representation.
Azaad Awaaz – Promoting LGBT “Experiences”
One of the clearest examples is Azaad Awaaz, a 10-episode podcast produced by Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment for Audible Suno and hosted by filmmaker Mozez Singh. The series explicitly focuses on the lives and experiences of India’s LGBTQIA+ community and its allies. Audible describes the show as exploring their “dreams, hopes, triumphs, struggles and joy.”
The podcast features stories involving gay couples, transgender people, drag performers and people dealing with coming out and acceptance, while also discussing issues including homophobia and the legal battle surrounding Section 377. Season 2 continued featuring voices from the LGBTQIA+ community, including gay couples, lawyers involved in Section 377 cases, and drag performers.
KASHISH Pride Film Festival
Monga’s association with queer cinema also extended to the KASHISH Pride Film Festival, one of India’s prominent LGBTQ+ film festivals.
In 2025, Monga joined filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane and director-producer Abhishek Chaubey as members of the KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant jury. The grant supports an LGBTQ+-identifying filmmaker in making a short film.
At the 16th edition of KASHISH, the jury selected the winner of the grant, while Monga, Chaubey and Motwane also contributed additional financial support to the runners-up. Reports from the festival noted that the jury was involved specifically in supporting LGBTQ+ filmmaking projects.
Monga’s involvement with LGBTQ+ content is therefore not limited to producing entertainment. She has also participated in a festival mechanism that provides funding and industry support to queer filmmakers.
Dorothy Joins The List
Now, let us come back to the latest entrant in that list – Dorothy.
Set in rural Tamil Nadu in the 1990s, Dorothy initially builds itself around caste divisions, violence and an intensely masculine social environment through childhood friends Karthi and Subbu.
But somewhere along the way, the film takes a detour into gender identity, gender fluidity and same-sex attraction and starts hammering those themes into the audience.
Even the title Dorothy carries a connection to gay culture through the historical phrase “friend of Dorothy,” a discreet euphemism used by gay men to identify one another.
The production has therefore placed Sikhya Entertainment directly behind an audio series whose stated focus is LGBTQIA+ representation and personal experiences.
Then comes the messaging. A trans woman tells a character, “Why don’t you see us as human? In 10 years, just 10 years, the world will accept us as we are.” The dialogue feels less like something the character needs to say and more like the filmmaker speaking directly to the audience.
And the ending doubles down, with a lip-lock between Rishikanth and Sananth.
This is where Dorothy loses its grip. A story that could have explored caste, violence and masculinity with nuance increasingly becomes a vehicle for pushing contemporary “woke” ideas. The themes aren’t merely part of the story – they are repeatedly underlined, explained and celebrated.
Guneet Monga Kapoor – The New LGBT Champion Shoving Woke Ideas Down Indian Audiences’ Throats
From Azaad Awaaz to KASHISH and now Dorothy, Guneet Monga’s Sikhya Entertainment has a documented trail of LGBTQ-focused content and initiatives. Dorothy now brings that same theme into a mainstream Tamil film, pushing gender identity and same-sex attraction far beyond the film’s original caste-and-patriarchy premise. What was once niche content is now being brought to mass audiences through cinema. And with Gunnet Monga Kapoor and Sikhya Entertainment behind the film, Dorothy becomes another link in that growing chain.
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