Kubbra Sait comes on board cast of Onir’s I Am sequel
FShe (Kubbra) is playing a girl who’s closeted, and outed without consent. ONIR,
ilmmaker Onir has turned all his attention to creating a sequel to his National Awardwinning film, I Am , and has roped in actor Kubbra Sait for one segment. Titled We
Are, it will weave together aspects of queer life through four stories.
“I’ve finished scripting the project and started casting. Kubbra will be seen opposite Nimisha Sajayan,” says Onir, choosing not to disclose too much about Sait’s character. IAm narrated four stories, strung together by the common theme of fear. It featured actors Juhi Chawla, Rahul Bose, Nandita Das, Sanjay Suri and Radhika Apte. For the sequel, Onir isn’t losing the essence of his idea, but infusing shades of the queer community. Shooting, he says, is slated to begin in September.
“It’s set in the same four cities — Kolkata, Kashmir, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Also, this time, I’m using regional languages, real transwomen and drag artistes, making it an Indian film, not Bollywood,” says Onir, who has co-written the script with Canadian filmmaker Fawzia Mirza.
In fact, the 52-year-old filmmaker has included various shades of gender and sexuality into the stories. “It celebrates the Supreme Court verdict on Section 377, but is also a critique of what we are facing right now,” Onir observes.
“I’m not thinking about who’ll be comfortable with what; I’m just making a film with stories I hope will touch everybody,” he ends, with a potential log line for his project: Love reigns.