http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120401/jsp/7days/story_15319774.jsp#.T3v5ze0SSMO
‘If you don’t hide you are heterosexual, why should I if I am homosexual?’*Smitha Verma* meets Onir, who won this year’s national award for best Hindi feature film for *I Am*, and finds him quite unaffected by his success Onir is full of apologies. The text message he sends me is peppered with the word sorry. His flight has been delayed, and he wants to postpone our appointment. And when we finally do meet, he apologises some more. But then, that’s Onir. The soft-spoken national award-winning filmmaker is not your usual Bollywood bigwig. His film *I Am* may have won two national awards this year — for the best Hindi feature film and best lyrics — but Onir is not riding the wave of fame. He is still the boy who left Bhutan with a heavy heart while in his teens, landed in Calcutta and then flew off to Berlin to learn filmmaking. He feels at home, though, now that he is making films on subjects close to his heart. “It has opened windows within me,” says Onir, referring to the awards. We are sitting in his apartment — tastefully done up with white linen and wooden furnishings — in Versova, a Mumbai suburb. He reclines on the sofa, puts his BlackBerry on vibration mode (not that it helps — the phone dances through the interview) and says, “This award has given me validation.” That *I Am* will be in India’s film archives gives him the greatest joy, says its director, producer, script-writer and editor. This is a first-of-its-kind film in many ways. For one, it was financed through crowd funding — with money being collected from people through a social networking site and by word of mouth. Over 400 people from 35 cities across the world have been credited as producers. The film also puts together four short stories based on real life incidents with themes that range from child abuse and gay rights to displacement of Kashmiri Pandits and sperm donation. But this wasn’t how Onir had envisioned the project when he first wrote the script. “It was written as four separate feature films but no one was ready to back it. Combining four stories into one was more of a financial decision than a creative one,” he says. The idea of raising money on the Internet was floated by actor Sanjay Suri, his friend and partner in the production company, Anticlock Films. “We started a group on Facebook asking people to contribute in any way they could. Some volunteered as production assistants while others contributed financially to the film.” The total budget of the film was Rs 3 crore, and Onir collected Rs 1 crore through crowd funding. The highest amount came from a stranger who donated Rs 15 lakh. Then there was a Pune student who sent across Rs 1,000 saying that the story on child sexual abuse was something he could relate to. The film is now behind him, but Onir looks tired. Dressed in a T-shirt and denims, he points out he has just flown in from Ahmedabad and is sleep-deprived. He addressed a press conference there with dancer-activist Mallika Sarabhai and gay right activist Manvendra Gohil to support the first LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) themed film in Gujarati titled *Megh Dhanush*. The dream run for Onir hasn’t stopped here. Last week, he received an official invitation from Cannes to be a part of the festival’s Producer’s Network. It will be a platform which will enable him and Suri to look for international deals for their next three films now under various stages of production — *Chauranga*, *Coach Kameena* and Onir’s own directorial venture, *Shab*. For Onir, his work is a dream come true. Though his childhood in Thimphu — where his father, Aparesh Dhar, was a school principal and his film buff mother, Manjushree, a history teacher — was idyllic, films were always there in the background. He first saw a television set when he visited Calcutta when he was in Class X, but his mother insisted that the family saw films over the weekends. “We spent most of our time reading, cooking, gardening, doing outdoor sports and fishing,” he recalls. With an elder sister and a younger brother, Onir was termed the black sheep of the family: he had no interest in studies and always pulling a prank or two on his brother. “I wrote examinations only to the point where I would get the pass marks of 40 per cent. Then I used to walk out.” He was a bit of a rebel even then. Born Anirban Dhar, he dropped his surname while in school as the system then did not allow him to use both his parents’ surnames. And once in Mumbai, he shortened his name to Onir. “I was tired of people mispronouncing my name as Anil, Amir Bhatt, Bhan, Bhai and so on.” The family moved to Calcutta in the late 1980s following political upheavals in Bhutan. Once in Calcutta, Onir joined Jadavpur University to study comparative literature. The first few months in the new city, he says, were “a culture shock” for him. “Calcutta was a big city compared to the city I grew up in. For instance, in Thimphu, I did not know what eve teasing was; in Calcutta I was disturbed with what I saw on the streets.” But the city helped nurture his love for cinema, which had been sparked by his mother. “When we were kids, she even bribed us with a candy or two for watching movies with her,” says the 42-year-old with a soft laugh. If his mother fanned his interest in cinema, it was filmmaker Shyam Benegal who inspired him to take it up as a profession. “The first film to leave an indelible impression on my mind was Benegal’s *Junoon*. The visual grandeur left me in complete awe. Though I couldn’t understand the movie much at the age of 12, the image of Shashi Kapoor running away on a horse was something which remained etched in my memory,” he says. Inspired by Benegal, and by filmmakers such as Ritwik Ghatak and Satyajit Ray, Onir arrived in Mumbai in 1994 after studying filmmaking in Berlin. His sister Irene Dhar Malik was by then working in Mumbai as a film and television editor. For 10 years, he worked as an art director, editor and music video producer and picked up sundry jobs in television and films along the way. He also worked as an assistant to Kalpana Lajmi on*Daman*. That was where he first met actor Suri, forging a lifelong friendship. Before long, Onir had started working on his own film. “I always wanted to make a film but never knew how to begin. Sanjay encouraged me to write my script and introduced me to several producers.” The outcome was the 2005 film *My Brother…Nikhil*, in which Suri and Juhi Chawla played the lead roles. “I was so bad at narration that Juhi told me had she gone solely by my narration she would never have signed the film,” he laughs. The film, based on the real life story of a swimmer from Goa who had AIDS, won him critical acclaim and a place in various international festivals. This was followed by films such as *Bas Ek Pal* in 2006 and *Sorry Bhai!* in 2008. “It isn’t easy making independent films. *My Brother…Nikhil* was distributed by Yash Raj Films but it is not easy to find big studios to back your projects.” The going may be tough, but Onir’s heart is still in indie films. “I refuse to be part of the regressive Bollywood films. I will never watch a movie like *Housefull* though I am not averse to seeing *Delhi Belly* or*Kahaani*. It’s just that I am incapable of making such films,” he says. Onir is different in other ways too. He is one of the few filmmakers to have openly admitted to being gay. And that has had its repercussions too. Last year, he was accused of molesting a male actor. Onir had denied the charge, maintaining it was consensual. So would it have been easier if he’d stayed in the closet? “It’s important to refuse to be invisible. If you don’t hide you are heterosexual, then why should I if I am homosexual? This is an industry where I could be a soft target. But you learn with time. And I want to live with dignity and pride.” When he is not discussing or making movies, Onir is busy reading. At present, he is hooked on Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s *Purple Hibiscus*. His other interests include watching Iranian and European movies, besides cooking. And making a Bengali film for his parents who stay in Calcutta too is on his mind these days. “Bengal needs to revive its cinema. They should stop making bad imitations of Tamil and Hindi movies.” As we wind up the interview, my eyes fall on a black and white photograph of a young woman with actor Dev Anand on his bookshelf. “This was clicked in 1974 when Dev Anand came to Thimphu for the coronation of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck . My mother is a huge fan of his and managed a breakfast meeting with him at the hotel he where was staying. My dad was one of the most respected people in the small city so getting Ma to meet him was not so difficult for Baba. But Baba was sulking in a corner while she got this photograph clicked,” he laughs. Are his parents happy with his career choice? “They wanted me to study medical sciences or be a professor. But I feel my mother always secretly wanted me to be a filmmaker. She couldn’t stop crying after hearing the news of my award,” he replies. His brother, a scientist at the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, was a recipient of the Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Award for science and technology — a matter of pride for the family. Now, Onir has joined the ranks. “My mother is happy that both her sons have won national awards,” he says.
