In recent years, several movies have featured LGBTQ characters and some of them have been warmly accepted as well. Even mainstream movies have addressed this problem such as: Kapoor & Sons (2016), Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019), Bath shark Do (2022), etc. and it also featured prominent stars as gay characters. In 2005, however, it was a challenge to make such a film. And an even bigger challenge was finding a buyer. Onir, who made My brother Nikhil (2005), revealed in his memoir ‘I Am Onir & I Am Gay’, co-written by his sister Irene Dhar Malik, about the hard times he went through during the release of his directorial debut.
Onir Reveals How He Was Humiliated By UTV Motion Pictures Management While Trying To Find Buyers For My Brother Nikhil
My brother Nikhil starring Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla and Purab Kohli and was inspired by the life of Dominic D’Souza, the first known HIV positive patient in India. Surprisingly, the gay-themed film was approved by the Central Board of Film Certification with a ‘U’ certificate. At the same time, Onir and his fellow producers, including Sanjay Suri, decided to look for distributors who could release their film in theaters. Onir said the experience was a nightmare.
Onir revealed in the book that he had one of the first showings of My brother Nikhil for Shyam Shroff of Shringar Films. However, they did not find the film appealing. “They were embarrassed and bored by the film and thought it was too long and uncommercial to get attached to it for distribution,” Onir wrote.
Onir then knocked on the doors of UTV Motion Pictures. He called his experience with the marketing and distribution team a “humiliating” experience and that “these people in the business world just saw film as a product to sell”. My brother Nikhil took place in the UTV boardroom with 12 people. During the screening, people walked in and out of the room to answer phone calls. He also said: “One of the guys kindly asked me if I was showing them the rushes of a documentary”.
Finally Onir managed to release My brother Nikhil after Aditya Chopra’s Yash Raj Films came into the picture.
Also read: Onir speaks of how he was falsely accused of sexual assault and the humiliation he received from the police for being gay: “They suggested that I be locked up for indulging in such SINFUL activity”
More pages: My Brother Nikhil Box Office Collection
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