Ace director Onir recently visited IIM, Calcutta to address the students at the prestigious TEDx platform. TEDx has featured some of the greatest personalities from across various disciplines. Onir was present to address the audience on the challenges that are faced by Indie cinema today, especially in India. Onir has been an indie film director/producer for more than a decade and one of the few possible authorities on the subject.
In the last decade Onir has carved his niche in Hindi cinema. His debut film My Brother Nikhil was applauded for the awareness and sensitivity it created in its audience and won many national and international awards. Since then the director has been involved in multiple path breaking projects in varying capacities. His film I AM won two National awards and he is looked upon as a pioneer in crowd funding and sourcing through social network in India.
The most recent of those would be Chauranga that was produced by the banner, Anticlock Films that he helms along with actor Sanjay Suri.
Onir has managed to bridge the gap between ‘art cinema’ and Bollywood and created a neutral territory for honest expression in Hindi cinema. Among his greatest achievements is his capacity to create good cinema in surprisingly humble budgets. He touched upon topics such as creative expression, perception of different types of cinema in India, Bollywood studios but most importantly, he demystified the monster of production.
He also impressed upon the importance of altering perception. More talent can be easily uncovered through the promotion of Indie cinema and understanding of optimally operating as small nuclear production units.
While addressing the students at TEDx , IIM Calcutta, he said, “The most important thing is to have dreams and then belief in those dreams… and then you struggle to achieve them…. believe me the journey becomes precious.”
Onir is currently looking forward to his upcoming film Shab that is due to release in the first quarter of 2017. The film stars the ravishing actress, Raveena Tandon in a comeback of sorts and new comer Ashish Bisht along with Bengali actress Arpita Chatterjee. The film will also introduce French Actor Simon Frenay. Actor Sanjay Suri is also playing a cameo in the film.
