After I Am, it’s Shab

Director currently in Goa finalising script, looking for international investors.

Having faced enough trouble to get his film,

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I Am

, financed in India, Onir has decided to look at international investors for his next titled

Shab

(Night), the final draft for which is already ready. But he has never had it easy with producers and distributors in India.

After his first film

My Brother Nikhil

(2005), he was tagged as an art-house filmmaker because of his choice of subjects and messages; be it AIDS, homosexual stories or child abuse. When asked if he is disillusioned with the producer-distributor system, Onir retorts, “Should I not be disillusioned? Producers find investing in my issue-based R 3 crore film a scary proposition, as opposed to producing a multi-crore dud.”

His last,

I Am

, stars directors Anurag Basu and Anurag Kashyap, who worked with him for “free”, and actors Manisha Koirala, Juhi Chawla, Purab Kohli, Sanjay Suri and Nandita Das. The film is set to release by February 2011.

Shab

is based in South Delhi, and deals with the double lives the four principal characters lead. “One is a Kashmiri boy who comes to the metro to fulfil his dreams. He is looking for success and ends up becoming a toy boy. During the day, he works as a trainer in a gym. Then there’s a girl, who works in a cafeteria where this boy goes to eat regularly. He falls in love with her. She too works as a high-end escort. The owner of the cafeteria is a gay person looking for permanent love and the fourth character is an industrialist’s wife who has an open relationship with her husband,” says Onir.

He developed this script in association with the NFDC film bazaar and BINGER script lab in Amsterdam. The director is currently in Goa to finalise his script. Says Onir, “I am also looking for an international co-production. There is zero support in how independent films are produced and distributed in India. I have to look at other means to sustain and get my films released.”