A teller of uneasy stories: I want to make honest films, says Onir

His latest film has run into a wall but Onir, the director who says it as it is, is forging on with projects on a subject less discussed

I am waiting at the Leaping Windows café in Versova, Mumbai, for filmmaker Onir, whose claim to fame is My Brother…Nikhil (2005) — a sensitively made film about a gay swimming champion in Goa who faces rejection and violence when he is diagnosed with HIV — and the National Award winning I Am (2010), which engages with subjects like child sexual abuse, sperm donation, the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, and police brutality against gay men.

He arrives at the appointed time wearing a lovely purple t-shirt, and a tulsi mala around his neck. “It’s a gift from Vrindavan. People think that