During promotions for his new film My Melbourne, an anthology, filmmaker Onir was asked if he had “done enough queer stories.” He found the question bizarre and indicative of industry bias.

“I’ve made more straight films than queer ones,” he told Mid-Day. “There were three other directors sitting with me at the time, but none of them were asked if they’d done too many straight films?”

Lack of mainstream support

Despite We Are Faheem and Karun screening at prestigious festivals like Kashish, Onir noted these events often attract predominantly queer audiences. Post-screening discussions rarely extend beyond the community, highlighting a larger issue of systemic neglect.