DNA Exclusive: Director Tushar Tyagi opens up on 'Saving Chintu', says 'humbled that film is qualified for Oscars'

A touching story about two married Indian American men -- Sam (Sachin Bhatt) and Oliver (Edward Sonnenblick)-- settled in the States, who want to save a young HIV positive boy Chintu (older version played by Adil Hussain) in India, and wish to make him part of their small family, the film 'Saving Chintu' will leave you with a smile on your face and tears in your eyes as you experience mixed feelings of choosing right from wrong and doing your karma. The film will also leave your heart filled with hope and positivity towards the end of its 30-minute run-time.

Directed by Tushar Tyagi, 'Saving Chitu', which is eligible for Oscars 2021, is a film that explores the emotional complexities faced by a gay couple when they decide to adopt an HIV positive child from India and touches upon several sensitive topics such treatment meted out to HIV positive patients and non-recognition of adoption rights by a same-sex couple, ultimately ending on a high note with the gay couple overcoming personal differences to save a life with the help of a friend (Dipannita Sharma). And, all of this in just 30 minutes.

A commendable and ambitious project in terms of the subjects it took on, the film manages to effectively highlight the issues in the limited time that it had and not even once did we feel it lacked anywhere, except for maybe the ending which was a little too happy given the course the lead actors had chosen to save Chintu. 

So, to know more about why did Tushar pick this topic for a short film that will possibly run for Oscars in 2021 in the live-action short film category, we spoke to the director and questioned him about the film's happy ending despite the couple taking an illegal course to save a life and much more in this exclusive tête-à-tête. 

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

- It’s a beautiful film with a heartfelt message. Was this the emotion you wanted to evoke when you first thought about doing a film on the subject of homosexuality? Why exactly did you pick this topic? Any inspiration you took from real-life? 

Back in 2016 in Los Angeles, one day I was eating dinner with my doctor and his wife, and during our conversation, I came to know that this world-renowned surgeon was adopted from India. He was almost rescued from an Indian orphanage by an American couple. He was suffering from malnutrition, tuberculosis and a lot of other health problems when he was illegally adopted by his American parents. So, the thought of an Indian orphan saved by an American couple, who turned out to be a renowned doctor just because of the opportunities provided to him, stayed with me. So, one day, I told him that I want to make a film on his life story. It took a lot of convincing and we ended up signing an NDA. Later, the story was shelved because though the story was amazing but it didn't have any high stakes for my creative satisfaction. 

It was in 2018 when I came to India, I came across Jeremy, who is originally from New York and runs a shelter for HIV positive kids. Jeremy told me he is from the LGBTQ community and after getting diagnosed with HIV back in 2003 he took a eat, pray, love kind of journey to India and ended up in Nagpur where he came across these HIV positive kids. He saw these kids were facing serious discrimination, had no medical care, and were poorly fed. He decided to sell his property back in America, bought a building in Nagpur, and converted it into a shelter, where he is providing food, medical care, and education to almost 30 HIV positive kids. 

During our conversation, I asked him what kind of discrimination and issues does he have to go through in India being from the LGBTQ community and running a shelter for HIV positive kids considering our country has so much stigma attached to these two subjects. All the horrifying stories he told me and the issues that he has to go through on a day to day basis, considering that, I decided to incorporate this in the story that I had been stuck with over two years. I thought it might take the film to another level and might be a conversation starter. That's how I combined two real-life stories and made a film inspired by true events. 

- Besides homosexuality, the film also explores sensitive topics such as HIV, child adoption besides throwing light on how the Indian laws still don’t recognize adoption by same-sex couples. Do you think a film like this can make way for a change? 

Yes. I think films like this can definitely bring a change or at least can be a conversation starter. To bring a change people need to be aware of the various struggles faced by a particular community in society. There are a lot of people who don’t realize these issues and so many of them don’t even acknowledge the community as a whole, let alone realizing their problems. If more films are made about the issues and the rights the LGBTQ community has been deprived of, it will definitely start a conversation. And conversations of today will lead to hopeful inclusiveness and acceptance tomorrow.

- Why did your film have a happy ending? Since the Indian laws don’t recognize adoption by same-sex couples and it’s not an easy process as depicted in this film, why choose to end the film on a happy note despite the lead actors doing illegal things, a partner ‘sort of cheating on another’ to save Chintu? Are you trying to say it’s okay to go to any extent? 

The film has a happy ending because it is inspired by true events where I've merged two real-life stories and I chose to keep the ending happy because I wanted to make a film full of hope. I wanted to make a film that people sit with for a moment even after the film is finished. I also wanted the film to be a source of hope to a lot of people from the community. 

The whole idea is to make a hopeful movie because so many times if you shatter the hopes through a medium of cinema, which is a widespread medium, it does really shatter so many people’s hopes and I didn’t want to do that with a sensitive topic like this. 

- Recently, Arjun Mathur was nominated for the Emmy for his portrayal of a gay man in Amazon Prime’s 'Made In Heaven'. In fact, in 'Four More Shots Please!', there’s a grand lesbian wedding that is shown. Do you think more films on the subject of homosexuality and around LGBTQ community will lead to a more social acceptance for the community keeping in mind how they are still battling prejudice despite it being over three years since Article 377 annulment? 

I definitely believe that making the right films portraying people from the LGBTQ community as normal people, which they actually are, would definitely make space for acceptance in our society. Section 377 has been up-rooted but it’s going to take a lot of conversation and a lot of talking for our society to come to the terms with the fact that the LGBTQ community members are as human as the rest of us, their rights are not just LGBTQ rights their rights are human rights. 

This is a huge responsibility which most of the commercial mainstream films in Indian cinema fail to uphold. They fail to portray the authenticity of LGBTQ characters as normal people. Very often in mainstream Indian films, the gay or lesbian character is written by straight writers who don't know anything about being gay and their issues problems. Talking about Arjun Mathur's role -- the character played by him is so normal so believable and authentic. We need more films, short films, OTT web series to start including LGBTQ Characters not only on-screen but in the crew as well, who can write about those character with experience and authenticity.

-Why do you think we mostly see such topics being explored only in short films, series on digital platforms, etc and not in a big-budget Bollywood film?

 The mainstream cinema and commercial producers and writers in mainstream cinema want to make content that is sort of a safe zone to sell.  

Cinema has that potential to break that ice, but mainstream cinema doesn't want to risk it with their pockets. And let’s face it it will take some banging across the window to sort of bring this concept and change for general people and put it there to kind of start forming views about it until it is accepted socially but no one wants to put time and effort. 

- Finally, we hear you are eyeing for Oscars 2021. Tell us about it. How do you feel that your short film is eligible for Oscars?

Yes, we are qualified to run for Oscars 2021. We are actually all set to start our Oscar campaign. I and the entire team of 'Saving Chintu' are thrilled. I personally am very humbled that our film is qualified to run for the Oscars. It’s a surreal feeling that our film is running for Oscars this year. I mean when we make films we are overworked and exhausted, the only thing that keeps us going is the passion for cinema. When we were filing 'Saving Chintu' we didn’t anticipate that our film will make it to so many prestigious film festivals including Oscar and BAFTA qualifying film festivals. And since now it’s running for Oscars, it’s just putting me on the goosebumps.