Onir’s ‘My Brother…Nikhil’ is finally a triumph for producer Sanjay Suri. Playing the title character he gets the chance to play a role no other Indian actor has ever done. Nikhil’s sexuality and his struggle to die with dignity are mapped on Suri’s gentle face. He’s so equipped to convey Nikhil’s vulnerability that you wonder what has kept the film fraternity from proving him better opportunities.
While talking about the film, Sanjay revealed that the film interestingly is fact based. “It is inspired by some incidents in the late 1980s when AIDS became rampant. Some people had been arrested in Goa after testing positive. We’ve set the film back by fifteen years when mindsets about AIDS was different – though, not very different. We still exist in a world riddled with gender, sexual, political and religious biases. My character Nikhil is homosexual, though that isn’t why he gets AIDS. We didn’t want to create another level of bias by linking HIV with homosexuality. I wasn’t the least apprehensive. But we had to be careful. My director Onirban has handled the issue so sensitively, it doesn’t remain an issue.”
He continues, “The issue is no more how Nikhil got AIDS, but what happens thereafter. We’d gone beyond the disease to examine the layers of ostracising a person. I simply had to produce the film and act in it. My character is a closeted gay, while his partner (Purab Kohli) is not. I hoped my film at least finds more social acceptance than such people do in real life. We haven’t preached about any issue. The story is essentially of how a middleclass family comes together during a crisis, about acceptance of taboo relationships. My character Nikhil has to fight for the right to dignity, before he can begin to fight to live.”
Sanjay Suri also turned producer with ‘My Brother…Nikhil.’ He shares, “The big producers either wanted to follow the market trend or to dictate which stars to sign. We were on a different wavelength.
I want to say thanks to all those who said no to us and forced us to produce this film.”
About the cast, he shares, “The cast was wonderful. Whoever we went to immediately said yes because of the powerful script. Purab Kohli, who plays my character’s gay partner cried when he saw the film. Fortunately for us, people like Karan Johar saw and loved the film. A word from the right quarters always helps. It is said – the letter ‘I’ doesn’t exist in the word ‘team’. It didn’t, during the film. I guess it’s my breakthrough film. Just like my character Nikhil, I never got a support system in Bollywood, no big hit. I was an outsider without any connections.”
“After my roles in ‘Jhankar Beats’ and ‘Pinjar’, they knew I could act. But I was never launched in a big way. I didn’t have too many great options as an actor. But I haven’t produced ‘My…’ to create an opportunity for myself. I won’t necessarily be producing films in future too. But, ‘My…’ had to be made. Since no one else would do it I had to take the plunge. The film has changed the way I look at my social responsibilities as an entertainer. I was always a socially aware person. But after playing Nikhil, I’m even more so,” he concludes.
