Onir

Onir is an Indian film director, editor, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his film My Brother…Nikhil, based on the life of Dominic d'Souza, and one of the first mainstream Hindi films to deal with AIDS and same-sex relationships.

Life and career

He was born as Anirban Dhar in Thimphu, Bhutan. His father Aparesh Dhar and mother Manjushree are of Bengali origin. Onir spent much of his childhood going to the cinema. Earlier, Aparesh Dhar had resigned from his position as a school principal when his Nepalese students were removed and arrested (they were later found dead). In Kolkata, Onir studied comparative literature and took a few film classes at Chitrabani film school. He graduated from Jadavpur University in 1989, but left before getting his post-graduate degree when he received a scholarship to study film editing at SFBTTC in Berlin. He later returned to India and worked as an editor, script writer, art director, music album producer and song /music video director.. He also served as an assistant to Kalpana Lajmi on Daman: A Victim of Marital Violence (2001) where he had his first experience directing a full-length feature film.