Arjun Mathur and Rahul Bose
Actor-director-social activist Rahul Bose and an upcoming actor Arjun Mathur (earlier seen in Farhan Akhtar’s short film on AIDS Positive and Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance) recently shot a gay love making scene for Onir’s I Am Omar. Moreover, the director is happy with his actors, as all of them are thorough professionals and he expects the censor board to act professionally too.
The film also stars Abhimanyu Singh of Gulal fame. He plays a homophobic cop in the film harassing the gay couple. Praising his actors, director Onir said, “Luckily none of my actors had any inhibitions. Rahul and Arjun did the scene, which goes much beyond anything seen in Indian cinema. They behaved like thorough professionals.”
However, about the scene, Arjun said, “For me as an actor it is always challenging to see what lies beneath the calm exteriors. I had absolutely no inhibitions playing the gay character and doing the kissing sequence with Rahul. I wondered what it would feel like. But it was done clinically and professionally.”
Meanwhile, the director adds, “We haven’t taken any still pictures of the kissing because we don’t want them to leak out on the net. The whole idea is to look at the question of homosexuality in a proper perspective and not to highlight any specific aspect of it.”
This will be the first gay love scene in Bollywood. Earlier for Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion, Samir Soni and his on-screen gay lover had shot a kissing scene in car. But, Madhur deleted it from the film before sending it to the censor board. However, with I Am Omar, Onir don’t want to delete it, as it is crucial for the film. “Arjun plays a sex worker. So we couldn’t do away with the physical aspect of the gay issue,” states Onir.
The film is supposed to be presented at Rotterdam Film Festival.
