Onir, Director of BFI Flare Selection ‘Pine Cone,’ Talks LGBTQ Cinema in India: ‘The Queer Gaze Is Missing’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Naman Ramachandran Onir, one of a handful of out and proud Indian filmmakers, is speaking out about the current scenario for LGBTQ filmmakers in the country. “There are a lot of non-Indian queer films and series available on streaming and also a lot of queer short films and reel videos being made across the country.
Having said that, I feel the mainstream industry and streaming platforms when it comes to queer content are mostly still taking baby steps, and also looking at our stories from a very heteronormative gaze,” Onir told Variety. “The queer gaze is largely missing.
What is disappointing is that it’s largely about a tick mark of having done the right thing — right from actors to platforms and studios that use the phrase ‘but we are already doing one queer story.’ I don’t understand what that means.
We are not one homogeneous story, we have many stories. As long as we are still othered as ‘they,’ our stories will never find the space it deserves,” Onir added.
