"I suddenly felt that I don't belong, till then I felt that I was a part of this group. And at that moment, for me, it was like, no, I don't belong. I don't feel that I would want after the two got over to continue. You know, my friendship, you know,because very often people say that it's important to have discourse, have discussed with people. And then if you really think that I've spent my lifetime doing that, and at some point, you're exhausted in constantly trying to validate your identity. And now I'm at a point of life where I am like, it's your shortcoming. And it's not my job in life. It's not my duty, to spend my time energy effort to constantly educate people, about learning to respect someone else."

Onir is an Indian filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and editor.

Born as Anirban Dhar in Samchi, Bhutan, Onir spent much of his childhood going to the cinema.

He received a scholarship to study film editing at SFB/TTC in Berlin but returned to India and worked as an editor, scriptwriter, art director, music album producer and song/music video director.

In 1992,Onir directed and produced his first Documentary film on the painter Bijon Chaudhary, “Falling Hero”.

He is best known for his film “My Brother...Nikhil”, based on the life of Dominic D'Souza, starring Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla and Purab Kohli. It was one of the first mainstream Hindi films to deal with AIDS and same-sex relationships.

Onir won the Indian National Film awards for Best Film in Hindi for the anthology “I AM” in 2011. I AM is considered one of the first and largest crowd-funded and crowd-sourced film through social media in India. The film dealt with single motherhood, child sexual abuse, displacement and LGBTQI rights.

Onir has also the received Likho Award (Trailblazer Award), the Diversity Award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in 2019 and in 2020 the Engendered Spirit of Independent Cinema Award at the Engendered Human Rights Film Festival in Delhi.

In June 2022, Onir finished shooting, PINE CONE, a queer love story which is written by Ashwini Malik and Onir. It is currently in post-production. It is loosely based on Onir’s memoir; I Am Onir and I Am Gay which he has co-written with his sister Irene Dhar Malik and published by Penguin Viking.

In August 2023, PINE CONE, a queer love story which is written by Ashwini Malik and Onir received the "Rainbow Warrior Award” and the "Rainbow stories Award" given by the Minister of Equality, Australia at IffMelbourne. This was followed by Honorary mention Best Feature at the International South Asian Film festival, Canada. It premiered at The KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival in June 2023.

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