Onir slams Bollywood for its ‘double standards’, claims the industry is still ‘homophobic’ | Hindi Movie News – Times of India

While attending the Kashish International Queer Film Festival filmmaker Onir once again took a dig at Bollywood. He was surprised to see no one from the industry, who often claim they are the allies of the queer community, came to show their support. Onir felt so disappointed to see not a single OTT programmer or a studio head came to watch the films with the community at the prestigious film fest.Onir’s latest film ‘Pine Cone’ was screened at the Kashish.
Addressing the media Onir said that what makes him angry is when these very people come up with stories on the LGBTQIA+ community from their perspective and talk about the queer community’s rights. He further adds that if these people can’t support the queer movement when needed then they have no right to sit in creative spaces and decide what queer stories need to be told. The ‘I Am’ director insists that they are all from the same gender, men or women, and some closeted people who write this from a very heteronormative view.
Onir also points out that most of the LGBT narratives Bollywood films follow are more focused on why society should accept queer people but they forget that queer people’s life is not all about acceptance or shortcomings. The 54-year-old filmmaker also spoke about his recent conversation with an actor. Speaking about the perception industry has about the community Onir recalls he recently reached out to an actor for a role and his immediate response was that he has already done a gay character. Onir’s question is will he say the same about straight characters? He also doesn’t understand why Bollywood so easily reduces the life of the queer community to their sexuality. According to My Brother… Nikhil director, being gay is just a part of the identity.
This is the reason why Onir feels that all these discussions by the industry about inclusivity are nothing but a way for the heteronormative world to pat themselves for doing the bare minimum and in reality they’re just fighting with their homophobic thoughts.
However, Onir won’t hesitate while slamming the double standards of the film industry, who according to him always ready to ask for the support of the queer community when they need it.