Breaking Barriers

ONIR IS AN OPENLY GAY FILMMAKER WHO IS TIRED OF SANITISED LGBTQ NARRATIVES IN MAINSTREAM CINEMA. TANISHA BHATTACHARYA RECORDS HIS ANGST

- TANISHA BHATTACHARYA

Filmmakers shouldn't limit themselves. Otherwise, they run the danger of confirming to set norms. Rather, their aim should be to push the envelope with every film. One filmmaker who believes in extending his boundaries with every outing is Onir. Starting from My Brother... Nikhil (2005) to Shab (2017), his films have tried to normalise the queer narrative in Hindi cinema. He's an auteur who's equally at ease being an editor or writer as he's being a filmmaker. He's also controversy's favourite child but has never run away from his accusers but has faced them with a rock-like conviction in his beliefs. He's not afraid to show the world who he is and doesn't care for its judgement. Excerpts from a heart-to-heart talk with the maverick filmmaker.

Indian cinema has progressed quite a bit with how they sensitize queer storytelling now, but you took that plunge back in 2005 with My Brother Nikhil.

Honestly, I don't think I had the problem of courage because I didn't need the courage to be myself. It was perceived as courageous from the outside by the actors and everything because it was the first mainstream film at that time. But while making the film we were doing it solely because everyone loved the script and felt strongly for the story including me. There was more of a need to do it because it moved all of us and we were not conscious we were doing something that we were doing something brave, we were just doing something that we believed would touch people's hearts.

What are the changes you see in the creative process of filmmaking with so many filmmakers now not hesitating to go for queer characters?