It’s not hard to speculate where this rumour could have originated from and why people are so enthusiastically running with it. It has become deceptively easy to run PR campaigns surrounding upcoming films, using them to stir cultural discourse. Even though Cocktail 2 director Homi Adajania has said there is a good reason behind Sanon’s now-viral ‘threesome’ dialogue from the trailer, what is more interesting is what these conversations reveal about us as a film-going audience. Films like Kabir Singh and Animal, and in the more recent past, Dhurandhar and Tere Ishk Mein, have created the kind of celluloid landsce that mainly swings between masculine hero-worship and trite rom-coms. If two girls in a movie aren’t fighting for the affection of the lone male protagonist and Bollywood is still years away from perfecting genuine female friendships on-screen, the only option is for the audience to brand them as lesbians.

Despite the history of queerness in India spanning centuries, mainstream culture has rarely paid its due to non-heteronormative stories. Since the decriminalisation of Section 377 in 2018, the queer films we have gotten have been few and far between, with Badhaai Do delving into the lavender marriage between a gay cop and a lesbian PE teacher, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga a Punjabi woman (Sonam Koor)’s coming-out story, ‘Geeli Pucchi’ from Ajeeb Daastaan following an intercaste lesbian love story, and Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui centring the romance between a cisgender man and a transwoman (minus points casting Vaani Koor in the role) being the last few attempts.

Within mainstream culture, the lesbian still exists as a caricature to titillate the male gaze, never as an autonomous individual. Recently, Accused (2026), a film about a successful gynaecologist (Konkona Sen Sharma) facing anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct, explored the fetishistic accusations that lesbians are often slammed with for living their truth and how easily they can be turned into predators when the stigma surrounding their sexuality is weonised against them. A nuanced portrayal like that could have benefitted from a wider theatrical release, but there’s a real chance that it would not have been given the CBFC greenlight for ‘defiling Indian culture’ by showing a married Indian lesbian couple. When Deepa Mehta’s Fire released in 1996, it had passed through the censor board with no cuts. Only once it reached the masses did right-wing political parties call for a ban against the “immoral and pornogrhic” film, saying it went “against Indian tradition and culture”. Theatres were vandalised, cinema-goers were threatened. Despite the fact that Fire released 30 years ago, it is still hailed as one of the most progressive portrayals of sphic love to ever come out of Indian cinema.

Zendaya arrived at Louis Vuitton’s Resort 2027 show at New York’s Frick Collection in a custom silver satin mini dress by Nicolas Ghesquière, styled by Law Roach. A wide fold of satin crossed the neckline, exposing one shoulder before falling diagonally across the body. The long bell sleeves balanced the short hemline, while the silver tone continued through her pointed pumps.

Roach confirmed the Edie Sedgwick reference on Instagram, ctioning his video, “The essence of Edie…” The styling stayed close to that 1960s cue: Tiffany & Co. earrings, a cropped side-swept hairstyle with one eye partly covered by the fringe, winged liner, bronzed skin and a nude glossed lip.

Later that night, Zendaya changed into Look 14 from the Resort 2027 runway for the after-party: a cropped black biker jacket with ribbed detailing, worn over canary yellow satin boxer shorts and styled with the same metallic pumps. On the runway, Look 14 was shown with a grey bucket hat, monogrammed hobo bag and silver boxer boots. Zendaya’s version removed the runway accessories, leaving the contrast between the cropped biker jacket and yellow satin shorts to carry the look.

By contrast, Jaising moved through life with a certain defiance of convention and a carefree attitude. She postponed marriage until 36 (initially rejecting it) and chose to remain childless in the 1970s. “My life as a woman is my life in law,” she says. The sentiment runs through her new memoir, The Constitution is My Home, written in conversation with feminist publisher Ritu Menon, and now on stands.

From the start of her career, Jaising’s fight for women to be seen in workplaces and respected in courtrooms went hand in hand. In her 30s, she took on the case of Air India air hostesses who had been denied promotions to supervisory positions. “They were being treated like ornamental figures; their managerial abilities were completely ignored. The injustice was plain. It offended my sense of fairness and moved me to bring a series of constitutional challenges grounded in the right to equality,” she writes in the book.

That fervent ownership plies to every brief she takes on. Whether advocating for women vendors defending their right to sell vegetables or helping educationist Mary Roy (Arundhati Roy’s mother) demand her inheritance, Jaising repeatedly used the law to challenge the ways in which women were denied full personhood.

Writer Githa Hariharan, whose first novel, The Thousand Faces of Night, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the best first novel in 1993, recounts how Jaising stepped in when Hariharan was not considered the “natural guardian” of her own minor son under Indian law. “I went to Indira, and her organisation, the Lawyers Collective, took up the case pro bono in the Supreme Court. We won a landmark judgement in 1999,” says Hariharan. “I helped a little with the research, and it was quite a learning experience for me. We have been good friends since then, and I feel lucky to know such a powerful role model for women, for lawyers, and, indeed, for good citizens.”

And Jaising has been a great role model for renegade women. In the hallowed halls of the Supreme Court, a judge once banged a file on the table and declared, “Thank you, Ms. Jaising. We’ve had the pleasure of hearing you.” Jaising reenacts the scene for me in her living room, demonstrating exactly how she fought back against a bench steeped in class privilege and sexism. It was a casual but pointed dismissal of a woman representing the homeless against three legal heavyweights pearing for the builders. Refusing to be silenced, Jaising hitched up her pallu like a Maharashtrian woman preparing for battle and slammed her own file down in mimicry.

We’ve been hardwired to chase success no matter the cost—health, friendships, relationships. You may think that the most loyal zodiac signs are just built differently and have something elemental that allows them to see the best in people. The truth, however, is that they’re great observers and can simply see in a person what the rest of us miss—observations that allow them to decide whether a person is worth their trust or not. Not many of us are lucky enough to have the unflinching devotion of the most loyal zodiac signs, so if you do, make sure you protect it with everything you’ve got.

Taurus

They love being in charge because, be it a room, a person or the news, they are excellent at reading between the lines. While these headstrong bulls can be temperamental to deal with, lift a finger towards their loved ones and expect to lose an arm. They tend to be loyal to the bone, but once their trust is broken, it will take you a lifetime to gain it back. Don’t make that mistake and always make sure you’re in a Taurean’s good books.

Cancer

Aquarius

They may seem whimsical and fickle in many ways, but Aquarians tend to be the rocks within their relationships. They are great at preserving their independence and relationships in equal measure and are therefore more willing to look for the sunshine behind every grey cloud. Their family and community are everything to them, and they will go to any length to keep things filled with love and mutual respect. Displays of affection may not be their thing, but if there’s one friend who’ll always stand up for you when you’re not in the room, it’s your Aquarian buddy. With Aquarians, it’s all about looking beneath the surface.