from being an openly gay person in the film fraternity to unabashedly presenting samesex relationships on screen filmmaker onir had ensured his identity was never stifled amidst the struggle of presenting lgbtq themes in the most normal way when he heard about the historical verdict by supreme court scrapping section 377 of ipc he was among the first to celebrate the victory when we met the jubilant director of i am he was more than happy to share his musings about the changing society and the way forward from herelets start right at the beginning when you discovered yourselfit was not the usual start you know back in school i used to be a desperate romantic and used to fall in love with every second girl and it was always disastrous eventually i realised i like men yet i never felt the fear all i told myself was that i wont lead a double life and not lie to the girl im with i thought of exploring my desire and attraction for other guys i remember the early days when i used to go to online chat rooms and even go on blind dates some of which were really catastrophic for me it has been a great adventure and im glad my life went through all that most of my friends are not gay i dont define anyone by their sexuality however the true meaning of a persons love has always eluded me since i was in the industry it was difficult to understand why people love me is it because im who i am or because of the tag of a filmmaker that i carry i have felt used at times but i guess that has happened to everyone irrespective of their sexuality the scrapping of section 377 has been monumental for the lgbtq community your thoughts on iti am not a criminal anymore it is truly empowering to have the law on your side the community will now come out as they know people will treat them with respect one wont be scared to fall in love to fight for their rights the whole secrecy which threatens the sanctity of many relationships will be gone in fact marriages would be better and by choice people wont have to lead dishonest or double lives i celebrate the fact that so much effort was put in by so many people even when i had given up their efforts have paid off also i am in awe of the bench and five judges who gave us more hopeafter attaining the legal right what do you think is the way forwardit is important to find a way to normalise people about the themes that there is no difference between you and me and its just the way we love is different people need to get over the threatening part of it each of us face similar relationship issues as far as advocacy is concerned it should be handled a at family