When filmmaker Onir attended this year’s Kashish International Queer Film Festival, held in Mumbai, he was disappointed to notice the absence of “allies of the community” from the industry. “No OTT programmers or studio heads... Nobody from that world came to watch the films with the community,” he rues. What irked the Pine Cone director more is the fact that the same people try to tell queer stories from their point of view instead.

“Who are they to sit in those creative spaces and decide what stories need to be told about us if they can’t support us when needed?” he questions, adding, “They are all from the same gender, men or women and some closeted people, writing stories from a heteronormative view.”

Onir points out that unlike most mainstream Bollywood narratives, “queer life is not just about acceptance”. The I Am (2011) director adds, “All these talks about inclusivity are only a way for the heteronormative world to pat themselves on the back for doing the bare minimum.”

The 54-year-old doesn’t hesitate in calls out the double standards of the industry: “They [only] remember us when they need the community to cheer or celebrate them.”

He states, however, that the LGBTQI+ community doesn’t need “help to be accepted”. But the industry needs to change its narrow-minded perception. “All of them can do much more. And if they can’t, they can empower those who are trying to bring about change,” he ends.