Kolkata: The Ministry of Defense has rejected the film script the next Onir feature inspired by the true story of the gay department who stopped because it could no longer be maintained for him to remain homosexual and be in the Indian army.
The sequel to the national award-winning film titled ‘I AM’, the film is scheduled to be partially shot in Kolkata starting in April.
LT-Colonel Sachin Ujjwal, in the wing of the Strategic Communication of the Army, sending an email to the Director on Wednesday states that “the contents of the script received via email on December 16, 2021 have been analyzed in detail.
It was regrettable to inform that the script was not deleted by IHQ Mod ( army).
Hope you are lucky in all future efforts “.
In July last year, the Ministry of Defense had written to the film Certification Council (CBFC) and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Electronics and Information Technology to advise the production house to get the NOC from it before telecast from any film, documentaries or web series on soldier.
The letter said it had received complaints about the depiction of army personnel and military uniforms in “insulting ways”.
Onir wrote to mod looking for certificates without objections to the script, which was rejected.
Calls to Lt-col Ujjwal are not answered on Thursday.
Two years ago, Onir said, he had witnessed a television interview from a gay major who had come out of the army.
After that, he wanted to write a story about a gay man who liked to serve the army but couldn’t do it because of his sexual identity.
“My protagonist is a Jawan.
His love is still unrequited until he leaves the troops and meet his lover in Kolkata,” he said.
The filmmaker plan is to develop a story for one of our ‘films’.
“The idea behind ‘we’ is celebrating the Supreme Court verdict while highlighting four strange love stories about how society (including soldiers) needs to take steps to be more inclusive and celebrate diversity.
My script really respects our troops,” Onir said.
“I wrote this script based on the story in the public domain.
There are 56 countries in the world who recognize the presence of the LGBTQI community in the Army.
Has taken for years for women to find space in the Indian Army.
As a filmmaker and strange rights activist, It is important for me to be able to tell this story, “said the filmmaker, added that this was all more important after homosexuality decrimination.
“Ahead of our 75th year celebration of our independence, I was very disappointed with this rejection.” Onir is now talking to lawyers about his actions in the future.
“The filmmaker should question through the cinema.
This effort to stop the dialogue is very unfortunate.
True democracy does not exist unless it applies the same for all citizens regardless of gender, sexuality, caste, class or religion,” he said.