Producer Ajit Arora tells Sakshi Sharma that just like inter-caste marriages took a long time to be accepted in society, embracing the LGBTQ community is an emotional change, which demands time and patience

As they say your gender preference does not define you. Your spirit does. Ajit Arora made his foray into film production through 377 Ab Normal, which vividly portrayed the journey of hardships that members of LGBTQ community had undergone. He is all set to bring its second edition soon. His commitment to the cause prompted him to step beyond the horizons and venture into cinema. He said enthusiastically, “Whenever the instance on 377 will be recalled, ours will be the first film on it.”

On being questioned about commencing his journey through this film, he said, “When the Supreme Court gave the verdict that they are to decriminalise section 377, it was one enough reason to start with. This film was just a portrayal of what people had gone through before the verdict. So many people had lived their lives the way they shouldn’t have had.”

This landmark verdict had put across that this is not a crime and the film portrayed the same, the real-life captivating journey of emotional display of people who suffered and are now happy about how things are being accepted in the country.

Citing his reasons for choosing 377 over any other topic, he said, “We would have only shown the cause but not the solution. Here, we got the chance to portray the solution as well. The court is coming to take the action. So the bracket is closed, right?”

On the forthcoming series, he merely hinted, “It is an extension of the first film. I am leaving it on the audience to decide whether it is the same linear story which will continue or is it the futuristic thing?”

Emphasising on the community further, he said that as human beings, they also have the right to move around without having the fear of going behind bars. “I am glad that this personal choice was respected by the law,” said he.

Ajit apprised us that people will evolve with time. As they say change is the only constant thing in this world. Decades ago inter-caste marriages were not prevalent. If people did, they were disowned. Eventually, things changed with time. They broadened their mindsets. This is an emotional change, which is why it demands time for people to adapt to changes.

Talking about the impact of the film, Ajit said, “People were asking, ‘Acha ye crime tha kya, iske liye jail ho sakti thi kya? (Was this a crime? Could somebody be imprisoned for this?)’ They were not aware of the fact that 377 was a crime and the bearer were these people. They did not know that it was legalised by the High Court earlier and then reversed by the Supreme Court.”

His first film was streamed on ZEE5, an online channel. Hence, talking about the intricacies of the platform, he said that web has a longer shelf life as compared to cinema. One can watch it even after 10 days. This has taken the space of TV viewers and given it a big time dent. India has been fortunate enough to be the youngest populated country. People have evolved, the new generation is completely young at heart and mind at the same time. They are so well aware of the happenings in the world. We are lucky enough that such content is coming to our route. It offers the option of watching any genre and 500-1,000 things at a time.”

He apprised us that powerful content is important, it can not always be driven by social causes but by a regular person’s dream too. Good content has to be supported by the treatment of how you show it on screen.

Ajit layed stress on portraying reality. “I can’t fabricate the content to make it larger than life or blow it out of proportion so that everyone likes it. It is not the way reality should be shown. If tomorrow people say that the law has put a big embargo on the Haryana panchayat then I will be happy to make a film right then and there. We should not think about the verdict or the film as supportive of one community. We are supportive of social cause, it is something which was a landmark.”

He is currently working on many verticals, one of which is a common person’s journey to achieve a goal. It’s a film which conveys a social message. Through this, he is trying to portray social causes coupled with regular life content. It might drown you in a pool of emotions to ignite some thought.