Sridhar Rangayan

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Sridhar Rangayan
Sridhar Rangayan1.jpg
Born2 April 1962
Mandya, Karnataka, India
Other namesSridhar Rangayyan
Sridhar Rangaihn
Occupation(s)Film director, screenwriter, film producer
PartnerSaagar Gupta [1] [2]
Parent(s)M. R. Thirunarayan, Yadu Narayan

Sridhar Rangayan (also spelt Sridhar Rangaihn or Sridhar Rangayyan; born 2 April 1962) [3] is an Indian filmmaker who has made films with special focus on queer subjects. His queer films, The Pink Mirror and Yours Emotionally , have been considered groundbreaking because of their realistic and sympathetic portrayal of the largely closeted Indian gay community. His film The Pink Mirror remains banned in India by the Indian Censor Board because of its homosexual content. [4]

Contents

Rangayan was born in Mandya, Karnataka. As a gay activist, he has been one of the front-rank leaders in the LGBT movement in India and has contributed immensely towards the growth of awareness about sexual minorities in India. [5] [6] [7]

He is a Founder Member and Trustee of The Humsafar Trust, the first gay NGO in India, along with Ashok Row Kavi. He served on its board till January 2013. He also designed and edited India's first gay magazine Bombay Dost between 1999–2003.

In 2006, he was awarded the South Asian Achievers Award for his contribution to global mainstream media by Triangle Media Group (TMG), UK.

In 2010, he has served on the Jury for the Teddy Awards at the 60th Berlinale (Berlin, Germany), [8] Jury for Matter of Act awards at the Movies That Matter film festival (The Hague, Netherlands) [9] and also as Jury for Outfest, Iris Prize, Mardi Gras and Image+Nation.

He is the founder Festival Director of Kashish Mumbai Queer Film Festival that is held in Mumbai, India every year for past 11 years, the first ever queer film festival to be held at a mainstream theater - PVR Cinemas (2010), Cinemax (2011-2013) and Liberty Cinema (2014-2019)

He was elected as Regional Director (region 19) [10] of Interpride which is a network of more than 160 Gay Pride organisations from more than 35 countries in 162 cities, dedicated to LGBT Pride parades and other events.

He is also the Festival Director of Flashpoint Human Rights Film Festival that was held in Mumbai, India from 8–10 December 2010 at Alliance française de Bombay and screened 8 documentary films on human rights issues along with panel discussions on several topics like human trafficking and the law, violence against women and religious intolerance.

Early life and career

Sridhar Rangayan is a graduate of National Institute of Technology Karnataka and has a Post-graduate in Design from Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay, specializing in Visual Communication. Sridhar Rangayan worked with the National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped as Mass Media Officer and then for a while as a textile designer for an export firm, designing tapestries and carpets.

In 1994 he attended a short course in film appreciation at the FTII, Pune. Thereafter he apprenticed with Indian directors like Sai Paranjpye on the film Papeeha and TV serial Hum Panchi Ek Chal Ke and Dev Benegal on his feature English, August . He wrote the screenplay and dialogues for Kalpana Lajmi's serial The Awakening (Doordarshan) and was the Associate Director for the serial Dawn (Star Plus). Both these were produced by Bhupen Hazarika, the Assamese music director and singer.

From 1999 to 2002, Rangayan scripted and directed several television series like Rishtey and Gubbare for (Zee TV), Kagaar for (Sahara TV) and Krisshna Arjun, Kahani Jurrm Ki for (Star Plus). His serial Pyar Ki Kashti Mein for Star One (2004) was the first Indian serial to be entirely shot on a cuiseliner (SuperStar Virgo) and also in Singapore and Malaysia.

In 2001 he founded his production company Solaris Pictures along with his partner Saagar Gupta, a writer and art director. The company is perhaps the only production company in India to specialise in production of gay themed films. For his company, Rangayan scripted, produced and directed 'India's first film on drag queens' Gulabi Aaina which came 9 years after India's first gay film, Riyad Vinci Wadia's Bomgay . Gulabi Aaina has screened at more than 70 international film festivals and won several awards. This film, which is a sensitive portrayal of the marginalised community of Indian transsexuals, has become part of libraries and academic course work in US universities.

His first feature Yeh Hai Chakkad Bakkad Bumbe Bo (The Sensational Six) is produced by the Children's Film Society of India CFSI. It is a children's film. It won the Bronze Remi Award at WorldFest, Houston and has been screened at several children's film festivals. The film is written by playwright and screenwriter Vijay Tendulkar based on a story by writer and MP Shakuntala Paranjpye.

Rangayan's next film Yours Emotionally , a co-production with a UK production company Wise Thoughts portrayed the angst of a gay British Asian falling in love with a bisexual Indian man in a small town. The film has screened at several international film festivals including Tasveer – Seattle South Asian Film Festival and Prague Bollywood Film Festival.

His next film 68 Pages about stigma and discrimination faced by HIV positive people has been funded by DFID, UK and co-produced by his company Solaris Pictures along with The Humsafar Trust. This film which premiered at the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in December 2007 is about a HIV/AIDS counselor and how she instills hope and a will to live, among five HIV positive people from marginalised communities. A transsexual bar dancer, a gay couple, a sex worker and a drug user form the five narratives in this film. HIVOS has granted a fund to support screening of the film throughout India as part of its advocacy initiative. The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has made the film mandatory for all counselor training programmes throughout India as part of their NACP III program.

His next two documentaries on LGBT issues have been groundbreaking - 'Purple Skies - Voices of Indian lesbian, bisexual & transmen', produced by PSBT Public Service Broadcasting Trust is the first film on lesbians to be telecast on Doordarshan; [11] and 'Breaking Free', a film about Sec 377 and Indian LGBT community, produced by Solaris Pictures won the National Award for Best editing (non feature) at the 63rd National Film Awards 2016 for editors Pravin Angre and Sridhar Rangayan. [12] The film also won the Barbara Gittings International Human Rights Award at qFLIX Philadelphia film festival, USA [13]

He has directed and produced the feature film Evening Shadows which had its world premiere at Mardi Gras Film Festival, Sydney in February 2018. Evening Shadows is a story about a gay son coming out to his mother in a small town in South India and how his family reacts to it. The film has won 27 awards and has screened at more than 80 international film festivals. The film stars Mona Ambegaonkar, Ananth Mahadevan and newcomers Devansh Doshi and Arpit Chaudhary. [14]

He was named to the jury for the Teddy Award for LGBT films at the 2010 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale). [8] He has also served on the jury of prestigious film festivals Mardi Gras Film Festival, Movies That Matter Festival, [15] The Netherlands, Iris Prize, UK, Image+Nation LGBT dilm festival, Montreal, Quebec, Canada and Outfest, USA [16]

Rangayan was also chosen as one of the Grand Marshals at the 2016 Montreal pride parade, [17] where he led the pride parade along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau [18] [19]

Apart from filmmaking, Rangayan is also actively involved with human rights issues and the disability sector. He has made short film on cancer intervention and rehabilitation as well as several films on hearing impairment.

Filmography

Director

Awards

Rangayan and his films have won several awards, both Indian and international. They are as follows:

Related Research Articles

<i>The Pink Mirror</i> 2006 Indian film

The Pink Mirror, titled Gulabi Aaina in India, is an Indian film drama produced and directed by Sridhar Rangayan. Said to be the first Indian film to comprehensively focus on Indian transsexuals with the entire story revolving around two transsexuals and a gay teenager's attempts to seduce a man, Samir. The film explores the taboo subject of transsexuals in India which is still much misunderstood and ridiculed.

<i>Yours Emotionally</i> 2006 British film

Yours Emotionally is a United Kingdom-Indian co-produced film written by Niranjan Kamatkar & Sridhar Rangayan and produced by arts charity Wise Thoughts (UK) & Solaris Pictures and directed by Sridhar Rangayan - starring Premjit, Pratik Gandhi, Jack Lamport, Ikhlaq Khan, and Ajai Rohilla. The film was selected for participation in LGBT film festivals in San Francisco, New York (NewFest), and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anant Mahadevan</span> Indian screenwriter, actor, and filmmaker

Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, also credited as Anant Mahadevan, is an Indian screenwriter, actor, and film director of Hindi and Marathi as well as Tamil Films and television shows. Having been an integral part of the Indian television serials and Hindi films since the 1980s, he is also involved in the professional English and Hindi theatre.

<i>68 Pages</i> 2007 Indian film

68 Pages is a 2007 Indian film about an HIV/AIDS counselor and five of her clients who are from marginalized communities. The film is directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Humsafar Trust in association with Solaris Pictures. It had its world premiere at the International Film Festival of Kerala and screened at several international film festivals. It won the Silver Remi award at WorldFest Houston International Film Festival 2008, USA. The film was also screened in the Pink Ribbon Express, a National AIDS Control Organisation initiative.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solaris Pictures</span> Indian film production company

Solaris Pictures is an Indian film production company based in Mumbai. It was created by Sridhar Rangayan, and Saagar Gupta in 2001. The two have gone on to create several award-winning films under Solaris Pictures' banner, focusing on LGBT issues and HIV/AIDS.

The KASHISH Pride Film Festival is an annual LGBTQ event that has been held in Mumbai, India, since 2010. The film festival screens gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer films from India and around the world. It is voted as one of the top five LGBT film festivals in the world.

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India's LGBTQ culture has recently progressed in its cities due to the growing acceptance of the LGBTQ community in urban India in the 21st century. However, in rural India, LGBTQ culture is still absent or heavily restricted due to more conservative attitudes and opinions of rural Indian society.

Humsafar Trust is an NGO in Mumbai that promotes LGBT rights. Founded by Ashok Row Kavi, Suhail Abbasi, and Sridhar Rangayan in 1994, it is one of the largest and most active of such organisations in India. It provides counselling, advocacy and healthcare to LGBT communities and has helped reduce violence, discrimination and stigma against them. Humsafar Trust is the convenor member of Integrated Network for Sexual Minorities (INFOSEM).

Yeh Hai Chakkad Bakkad Bumbe Bo is a 2003 Indian children's film directed by Sridhar Rangayan, and written by Vijay Tendulkar and Sushma Bakshi. The film is based on a short story by Shakuntala Paranjpye and was shot on location over 20 days in Mandangad, Bankot and Mumbai.

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This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of South Asian ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally-specific identities such as Hijra, Aravani, Thirunangaigal, Khwajasara, Kothi, Thirunambigal, Jogappa, Jogatha, or Shiva Shakti. The recorded history traces back at least two millennia.

<i>My Son Is Gay</i> 2017 Indian film

My Son Is Gay, also known as En Magan Magizhvan in India, is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language film. It is a tale of a gay man coming out and the impact it has on his relationship with his mother and other people around them. Lokesh Kumar, a filmmaker from Chennai, India, wrote and directed the film. The film is about acceptance, tolerance, and the right of marginalized people to live with dignity in mainstream of society. The film has won 4 awards.

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Purple Skies is a 2014 movie directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust and Solaris Pictures. It documents the opinions of lesbians, bisexuals and trans men in India. It was broadcast on Doordarshan in 2015.

<i>Evening Shadows</i> 2018 film

Evening Shadows is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Sridhar Rangayan. The film stars Mona Ambegaonkar, Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, Devansh Doshi, Arpit Chaudhary, Yamini Singh, Abhay Kulkarni, Veena Nair, Kala Ramnathan, Disha Thakur, Sushant Divgikar and Faredoon Bhujwala.

<i>Breaking Free</i> (film) 2015 Indian film

Breaking Free is a 2015 film directed by Sridhar Rangayan and produced by Solaris Pictures. In this documentary, filmmaker and gay activist Sridhar Rangayan embarks on a personal journey to expose the human rights violations faced by the LGBTQ community in India due to a draconian law Section 377 and homophobic social mores of a patriarchal society. The film was selected to be part of the Indian Panorama (non-Fiction) and screened at International Film Festival of India in 2015.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Sangha</span> Canadian social worker and documentary film producer

Alex Sangha is a Canadian social worker and documentary film producer. He is the founder of Sher Vancouver which is a registered charity for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) South Asians and their friends. Sangha was the first Sikh to become a Grand Marshal of the Vancouver Pride Parade. Sangha received the Meritorious Service Medal from Governor General Julie Payette in 2018 for his work founding Sher Vancouver. Sangha's first short documentary film, My Name Was January, won 14 awards and garnered 66 official selections at film festivals around the world. Sangha's debut feature documentary, Emergence: Out of the Shadows, was an official selection at Out on Film in Atlanta, Image+Nation in Montreal, and Reelworld in Toronto. The film was the closing night film at both the South Asian Film Festival of Montreal and the Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival where it picked up Best Documentary. Emergence: Out of the Shadows also had a double festival premiere at the KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival and the Mumbai International Film Festival during the same week, where it was in competition at both film festivals for Best Documentary. The film also had an in-person and online screening at the 46th annual Frameline: San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival which is "the longest-running, largest and most widely recognized LGBTQ+ film exhibition event in the world."

References

  1. ↑ "LGBT COUPLE BEACH MUMBAI". The Hindu. 6 September 2018.
  2. ↑ MYTHREYEE, RAMESH (15 February 2023). "Valentine's Day: Same-Sex Couple in Their 50s Recounts Love Story With 'Pride'". The Quint.
  3. ↑ "AIDS film storms small town in Karnataka". Merinews. 19 October 2008. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
  4. ↑ Smith, Neil (6 May 2004). "UK premiere for Indian drag film". BBC News.
  5. ↑ "Call for Indian film censor to be more gay friendly". Smashits. Melon Farmers. 22 July 2009.
  6. ↑ "God Save The Queer". Gaylaxy. April 2010. p. 17.
  7. ↑ Tania Ameer Khan (June 2010). "A Flight For Freedom". Society Magazine. pp. 66–80.
  8. 1 2 Sharma, Supreet (5 February 2010). "Indian filmmaker in Berlinale jury". TopNews.
  9. ↑ "Movies That Matter Festival Awards Winners Announced - The Hague Online". The Hague Online. 1 April 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  10. ↑ "2013_annual_report_final" (PDF). interpride.[ permanent dead link ]
  11. ↑ "Doordarshan telecasts film on LGBT for the first time" . Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  12. ↑ "Sridhar Rangayan's LGBT film 'Breaking Free' wins a National Award | Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis". dna. 29 March 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  13. ↑ "Mumbai Diary: Wednesday Dossier". mid-day. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  14. ↑ "'Evening Shadows' Wins Top Award at Chicago South Asian Film Festival". India West. Archived from the original on 10 November 2018. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  15. ↑ "News - Awards Movies that Matter Festival announced - Movies that Matter Film Festival". www.moviesthatmatter.nl. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  16. ↑ Staff Reporter. "Sridhar Rangayan Named to Jury of Outfest". India West. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  17. ↑ "Accueil".
  18. ↑ "With Justin Trudeau by his side, Indian filmmaker leads Montreal Pride Parade" . Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  19. ↑ "Indian filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan will be a Grand Marshal at Montreal Pride 2016 | Gscene Gay Magazine - What's on in Gay / LGBT Brighton". gscene.com. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  20. ↑ "Breaking Free wins big". MidDay. 20 July 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  21. ↑ "2008 Winners" (PDF). WorldFest. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 February 2009.
  22. ↑ "2004 Winners" (PDF). WorldFest. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 24 September 2012.
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