‘They’re Opportunist’, National-Award Winner Onir On Film Industry's Silence Over Queer Rights

In 2005 a film titled My Brother… Nikhil moved the cinemagoers with its sensitive and flawless storyline. Directed by Onir, the film still remains a cult classic. We dwelled in conversation with Onir and talked about how queer stories have shaped Indian cinema and what’s the lump in his heart he still has with the film industry.

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Onir’s first encounter with what represented him the best was watching the film My Beautiful Laundrette in 1986.

He shares with us that queer people being in the closet is not something he will clap for. “When I look at my contemporaries in the film industry and I see so many people who are still closeted and glorify the act of being in a closet, I see my stand differently. Some say it’s a choice to speak of one’s sexuality but then I believe as a straight person nobody makes that choice.”

Onir’s coming out journey wasn’t with a bandwagon but more organic.

He shares, “When I recognized my sexuality, I honestly didn’t feel any shame or things like oh my god what happened to me? I’ve not had one moment of coming out where I had this entire family sitting and talking or my friends sitting. It just happened more organically when whoever was close to me just got to know who I was.”

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“And again I was very fortunate that be it my family, my brother, sister and all my close friends, they accepted me as I was during this course.”

Onir who won a National Award for his film I AM, further shares how money minds affected his craft. “Although the industry has been inclusive of queer people for ages now but when I started making films, I felt pulled back by the moneybags. The producers, theatres and OTT platforms are so much concerned about eyeballs. If they can do 80% of big budget mass ranking films, they can easily create a space for queer stories within 20%?”

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When asked what change he wishes in the scenario of queer cinema and its consumers, Onir shared, “A kinder audience, a kinder society that we live in. Overnight, LGBTQI+ stories won’t get you the box office numbers or the eyeballs. It will take time, but someone has to push those envelopes.”

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“I think it’s time for us to move beyond that same space of being accepted by the heteronormative world. We now have to claim that our lives are much more beyond the stories of acceptance and not constantly trying to fit into the space of a heteronormative society, that our existence is about how we can blend into that world. No, that world has to blend into us.”

Onir / Instagram

Onir feels irked by heterosexuals controlling the whereabouts of the queer community.

He says, “I feel we have this whole entitlement that okay we are at least talking about you now, so you better be happy and grateful. We have lived centuries of being invisible, being oppressed. And now I, as a person, as a filmmaker, and as a queer individual, refuse, when we are discussing marriage equality at Supreme Court, refuse… to accept what is given to us by people who feel entitled to control our lives.”

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“Who thinks that, Ok, they have the right to discuss how much equal we will be? And similarly, people deciding that how much of our stories are OK to be told. I feel we need to also make people uncomfortable.”

Onir is unhappy that despite global recognition his films didn’t receive any award.

He says, “I feel that for the longest time, I thought the industry was not homophobic, but in a way, I think I lied to myself because, be it My Brother Nikhil, be it I am, the industry awards never recognized it. I am, which got two national awards, innumerable international awards yet the industry awards didn’t recognize it.”

“In 2018, when section 377 was decriminalized, I expected that year maybe one of our industry awards will celebrate the fact that I’ve been one of the pioneers, key spokespersons for the LGBTQI community in cinema. But it didn’t happen and I feel sad about it. So even when I got the national award, it didn’t open up any doors for me.”

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Onir further shares the odds of the industry and says, “Everyone feels that they’re doing someone a favour. Suppose if you approach an actor, they will tell you that, I’ve done one gay character. And I’m like, what is actually a gay character? Approach a platform, then they’ll say we’re doing one LGBTQI story. I’m like, what is that? All your other stuff is straight people, right? So do you stop making that?”

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“I have zero respect for filmmakers, actors, whether they’re straight or closet, or people who have acted and worked in these films who do not speak up for our rights. If you are profiting from our stories, you are an opportunist if you don’t speak up for us.”

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