Gay Bollywood film funded by Facebook friends

An Indian film-maker has financed a controversial Bollywood film featuring gay characters after calling for donations via Facebook. Director Onir will see his low-budget feature, I Am, which consists of four short films on the subject of fear, released in cinemas on 28 April. Indian studios had refused to provide financial backing due to the movie's controversial subject matter. Not to be put off, the film-maker took to Facebook and pulled in donations from as far afield as the US and Australia. Altogether, more than one third of the movie's 30 million rupee ($675,000) budget was raised via the web, with major backers including the US-based psychotherapist Sarah Loper Sengupta and The Humsafar Trust, a gay rights campaign group. "Some people said they liked the film's subject. Or they wanted to learn about film-making. Or they simply wanted their name in the credits," Onir told AFP. "We shot footage as and when we got funds. Sometimes I used to wonder what if we don't get enough money? What if I get stuck midway with an unfinished film? Now I just want people to turn up and watch the film." The most controversial section of I Am is titled Omar, and focuses on gay rights. Other segments concentrate on issues such as child abuse, police harassment and a single woman's search for a sperm donor. The film will be shown with subtitles as six different languages are spoken by the actors: Hindi, English, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali and Kashmiri. Onir, 41, is familiar with film funding difficulties in deeply conservative India. His 2005 debut, My Brother ... Nikhil, told the story of a gay man diagnosed with HIV. One potential backer asked him: "Why can't the guy get Aids from a popular Bollywood actress?"