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Daaravtha by Nishant Roy Bombarde is a brave film on gender identity, made despite several hurdles. Vindication came in the form of two National Awards this year. In one of the scenes of the Marathi film, Pankaj, the adolescent protagonist, is having a conversation with his mother as she’s dressing up. He tells her, “Ma, women get to wear such beautiful, colourful saris… but for men, [it’s] the same old boring clothes…

This was a perilous time to shoot. We were to shoot in Delhi and the CAA protests were still on. We reached Delhi and the North East Delhi riots broke. Our art designer couldn’t step out of the house and hence we had to fly a replacement from Mumbai at the last minute. I had envisioned the film to happen in a mysterious setting and thus Delhi winters and fog had a big role to play but because of financing issues we were already in March…

Queer narratives have found a robust form of expression in short films. This explains why writer-director Nishant Roy Bombarde, 39, chose this medium for Daaravtha (2016) and Gair (2022). Layered and delicate, Daaravtha is about a young boy making his choice even as he discovers his sexuality. In Gair, caste and queer narratives intersect as two youngsters experience love. Daaravtha (The Threshold) scooped up the National Award for Best Debut Film and…

IT was a simple recollection by a friend, an incident from his childhood, that got Nishant Roy Bombarde thinking about gender roles as defined by the society. As a young boy, the friend wanted to keep his hair long but the decision became the cause of a huge conflict with his father, who associated tresses with “girls”. The questions that arose in Bombarde’s head after he heard this story, became the germ for his first film, a Marathi…

An artist should write in his/her local language. The ethos of our country, our nation, our region, our people, our society, our gender, our sexuality, maybe our caste or our class – the writing should reflect that. The best part of cinema or any other art is that it is a mirror to society. Yes, it could be escapism, which mainstream cinema does very well, but if you are trying to be an artist, if you are trying to do something different…