Although largely liberal, Bollywood hasn’t proved to be too broad-minded about accepting director Onir’s alternative sexuality. The My Brother... Nikhil director came out a few years ago, but it hasn’t been a smooth ride for him since, as far as his career and image are concerned. His next venture, Shab, comes six years after the release of his last film, I Am. “The film got a ‘U/A’ from the censor board, even though it was unabashed about homosexuality with frank references and visuals. No satellite channel or television channel was willing to air it,” he says.
Getting actors to accept his films also became a problem for Onir. “There is always that hint of caution in them,” according to him. Link-ups with young actors of his films is another issue. “A tabloid that earlier accused me of sexually attacking a young male aspirant (Yuvraj Parasher) called up to congratulate me for launching my ‘boyfriend’ in Shab. I told them, ‘I don’t care what you write about me. But if you write something like this about my new leading man, Ashish Bisht, you will harm his career’,” the director says.
Post such rumours, Ashish has become wary of being around Onir. “He wonders if putting his hand on my shoulder would be misconstrued as a gay gesture. It was Ashish’s liberal parents who asked him to just be himself and not care about what others think.” Believing that he is being punished for coming out of the closet, Onir says, “There are so many bigger filmmakers who are yet to come out. Nobody writes or says rubbish about them. But because I am the only openly gay filmmaker in our film industry I am vulnerable to all kinds of attacks.”
The late Rituparno Ghosh, who was perhaps the only openly-gay filmmaker in Bengali cinema, spent years fobbing off insinuations of sexual advances towards his leading men. Is Onir, too, being targetted for his alternative sexuality? “Why should my sexuality be called alternative? It is normal for me,” Onir shoots back.
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