On Thursday, Onir faced a major roadblock in the making of We Are — the sequel to the National Award-winning film I Am (2010) — when the Ministry of Defence (MoD) rejected the script of one of the short films. But the filmmaker has faith in his story, and more importantly, in the power of dialogue in a democracy. “The film will be made,” begins Onir, whose short is inspired by the life of retired Major J Suresh, who came out as queer and left the service — one of the main reasons being that it became untenable for him to stay in the Indian Army, given his sexual orientation. “There is no disrespect to the Armed Forces here at all. I want to emphasise that 56 countries in the world recognise the LGBTQiA+ community [as part of their army],” asserts the director.

We Are is a sequel to the National Award-winning film I Am