The 2015 film Aligarh and the 2020 film Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan represent important cinematic interventions in the legal battle for the decriminalization of homosexuality through the reading down of §377 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Through the staging of gay male experiences in small-town India, the films are in dialogue with two landmark judgments on LGBT rights.  Aligarh tells the real-life story of an Aligarh Muslim University professor, Siras, who was outed in the privacy of his bedroom by colleagues and media persons. The professor sued the University administration under the 2009 Delhi Hight Court Naz judgment that decriminalized same-sex relations. The 2018 Johar judgment that decriminalized homosexuality once and for all forms the backdrop of Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan, set in small-town Allahabad. The paper argues that the films represent two distinct gay male protagonists whose stories constitute opposing regimes of gay male visibility and identification in relation to the legal reform of homosexuality from 2009-2018. The out and proud lovers of Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan stand in stark contrast to the victimhood of Siras, whose legal empowerment leaves him visible and vulnerable. The paper demonstrates how gay-themed twenty-first century Hindi cinema mediates the relationship between law and society.