'My Brother Nikhil' director Onir on Karan Johar: 'He came out crying after seeing the film because...'

Filmmaker Onir is best known for his heartfelt and poignant drama My Brother Nikhil that came out in 2005. Starring Sanjay Suri and Juhi Chawla in crucial roles, the film chronicled the journey of a queer swimmer whose life comes crashing down after being diagnosed by HIV.

In a recent interview with Siddharth Kanan, the director revealed filmmaker Karan Johar’s reaction after watching the film. He said, “I was very scared, Karan is one of the biggest directors. Sanjay Suri invited him to watch the film in the editing room in 2005, when we were trying to find distribution for it. I was so nervous, it was my first film. I kept smoking outside while Karan watched. When he came out, he was crying. He said to me, ‘Onir, I can’t talk to you right now’.”

Onir added, “I think Karan cried because he could relate to the film as a human being, as a person, as the story of someone whose stories people don’t speak about. He connected with the relationships, and the film touched him. He was the one who recommended the film to Aditya Chopra, and I’m so lucky to have had my first film be distributed by a banner as big as YRF. I will always be grateful to Karan for having done that, because we were finding it very difficult to get a distributor.”

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