IF the film deals with social issues, it is even harder,” says director Onirban

Getting financial support for a film is no easy task, even if you have a critically acclaimed hit film under your belt. “And if the film deals with social issues, it is even harder,” says director Onirban (of My Brother Nikhil fame), who used social networking sites to fund his new film, I AM.

Now, that the film, comprising four segments, is finally completed, Onir credits his 400 co-producers. “Sanjay Suri and I wanted to make films with a vision; to use mainstream films to spread awareness and develop a culture of watching sensible, content-oriented cinema. But financial backing wasn’t forthcoming. The topics we’d chosen for I AM were too important to lay buried in the dark. So, we decided to call upon individuals, corporate houses and NGOs who share our indignation to join our cause of shedding light upon such daily tragedies,” says Onir, adding that he wanted the project to be an independent, community endeavour, free from studio criteria like star power and opening weekend sales. “This is a movement towards cinema that has content and entertains by way of enriching oneself,” he adds.

I AM, which is slated for release in September, has already been making waves. “People are recognising the social relevance of the subjects we have touched upon such as child abuse and homosexuality, among others,” says Onir, adding that I AM has been invited to be screened at a major exhibition on contemporary Indian Art at Deutsche Guggenheim Museum in Berlin. “The Arsenal cinema in Berlin will screen a series of contemporary Indian films this September. According to the museum’s curator Dorothee Wenner, this programme intends to highlight the increasing diversity in modern Indian film-making and change the popular notion that Bollywood cinema is all about couples dancing near the Swiss Alps,” adds Onir.

And though he’s excited about the positive response his film has been garnering, Onir is wary of I AM’s theatrical release “given the controversial nature of the film,” says the film-maker, who is now finalising his distribution partners and release strategies.

With I AM wrapped up, Onir’s now toying with ideas for his next venture. And most likely it’ll be an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. “I’m still working on the screenplay. My story will, however, be set in a very urban set-up, unlike Vishal Bhardwaj’s desi Othello, which was set in central India’s political milieu. I’m more at home in the cities,” says the director.