Onir launches signature campaign in order to tell homosexual soldier's tale

Last week, filmmaker Onir revealed that the defence ministry had declined to issue a no-objection certificate [NOC] with regard to his upcoming anthology We Are, which features a segment about a homosexual soldier.

Onir told Cinestaan.com that he would be making an ‘open appeal’ to garner support to get his script cleared. The filmmaker has now launched a signature campaign on All Out. 

The segment in question is inspired by the life of a retired army officer named Major J Suresh. As per the rules, production houses are required to obtain a NOC from the ministry before making a film, web-series or documentary on the Indian army.

It is mentioned on the signature campaign page how on 20 January the defence ministry rejected his script. 

“On questioning, Onir was told on a call that there was no specific problem with the script, but it cannot be cleared as being gay is ‘illegal’ in the army. Despite the Indian Supreme Court decriminalizing consensual same-sex relationships in 2018, it looks like the Indian army has not recognized it yet and still treats anyone from the queer community as illegal,” read the text on the page. 

The page also states that the story of J Suresh has been in the public domain for over two years after he gave an interview with the news channel NDTV where he revealed that he had to quit the army as he wasn’t able to ‘be himself.’ 

“This story has to be told because it’s unacceptable that being queer still does not allow someone to serve the nation that they love by joining the army,” the text read. 

We Are is the sequel to Onir’s National award-winning anthology I Am (2011).