My Melbourne, the opening film of Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) , not just represents a ground-breaking Indo-Australian collaboration, but also unites four prolific Indian filmmakers — Kabir Khan, Imtiaz Ali, Onir, and Rima Das — in an anthology of short films centred around the vibrant city of Melbourne. Inspired by true incidents, each short film explores themes of race, gender, sexuality and disability, reflecting the core values of diversity and inclusion that lie at the heart of both the festival and the city. The films are: Emma by Rima Das, Jules by Imtiaz Ali, Nandini by Onir and Setara by Kabir Khan. As the films receive rave reviews, we speak with Onir, the director of Nandini, to know more about the anthology and what this collaboration means to him. Excerpts:
If you could tell us about your collaboration and the anthology My Melbourne that's premiering at IFFM?
I have had a long association with Indian Film Festival of Melbourne, having attended it many times, the producer of the film and I had discussions about doing something together which is Indo-Australian and I'm glad that it happened. I was one of the first filmmakers I think to get on board and also the first film to be shot in the sequence.
My Melbourne is special also because it's the first time that I'm directing a story in an anthology. The subject of the entire anthology, which is diversity and inclusion, is always very special and close to my heart and taking forward the queer narrative in my cinema has always been something that I want to do and keep wanting to do and I'm glad that again through short films.
For me this year is very special not only for My Melbourne but also another short film that I produced, Kagazi Naav, made by a bunch of students from Kashmir. It's a Kashmiri language film, and the students are first-time filmmakers, so that is also very special. It's a student project, shot on smartphone, they are first time filmmakers and is shot in a very, very remote place in Kashmir, where probably the first time a film is shot
What's the future plan for Nandini or My Melbourne as a whole?
In February 2025, the film will be released across the world in theatres. Before that the film will travel to other festivals.
Do these festival releases really help popularising the film?
The reason for My Melbourne to be released at the IFFM is not so much about making it popular or whatever, but because it's a film that deals with Melbourne, and it's only apt at its start with Melbourne. I think My Melbourne stands to be a unique anthology where you have filmmakers like Rima and I who are more from the non-mainstream phase but you also have Kabir Khan and Imtiaz Ali, who are extremely popular mainstream filmmakers. Films in festivals, brings in conversations with a different kind of audience you know, otherwise usually films just reach out to the Indian audience and the diaspora audience, right? When it goes to festivals, it also reaches out to a mainstream, non-diaspora audience, and I think that is what filmmakers look for when they go to festivals.
Do you relate to Nandini on a personal level?
I think yes, because for me, the minute you're telling a queer story, it becomes personal in a way because our journeys are somewhere connected. Because for the longest time, as queer Asians, we have not been accepted legally or socially, right? My family always accepted it but it is something that one has seen close friends go through and still struggle with, and that's why you see that so many people still struggle to come out. And so it is very, very close to me. Also, we are still in a country where we are not accepted as equal. So it immediately becomes personal to see this story of a queer individual from our subcontinent in a different country where we are treated as equal. It's kind of a reflective desire and longing of acceptance and equality back home.
Why is there that huge gap of normalising homosexuality or showing homosexual characters or relationships on screen?
There is close to 50 percent of the women population, tell me what is the percentage of films that actually talk about, which are “women's narrative” in the film industry? A handful maybe. So everything in the industry, unfortunately, is still very patriarchal. And these patriarchal, masculine audience unfortunately is all about box office and eyeballs. Everything is so male-centric, rather cis-gender, heterosexual male-centric you know, so even when it comes to being creative it is very difficult because those sitting on top, decides it to be not as something that will bring them money. I honestly find the item numbers very offensive but they are still going on because it caters to that male audience.
So can we say that our industry is still really boxed up?
They play it safe about everything, you know. If it's queer, it has to be very subtle, it’s still taking baby steps. Even if we talk about women-centric films, even they are very boxed up. Also, we don't really talk about weaker men or men who get abused in films.
What does pride mean to you?
Pride means refusing to be invisible. Or, pride means refusing to be visible the way you want me to be visible. And pride is where equality is not negotiable.