When Milind Soman made me gay

Courtesy: IndiaFM
Monday, September 17, 2007

'Heartbreaker', 'Casanova' and 'Greek God' are just some of the terms that the ageless Milind Soman, has often been associated with. Its common knowledge that he has always been associated with being a gay icon, for quite a long time, a slot that was eventually 'replaced" by the likes of Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan. But, as the saying goes, 'Being gay is one and a being gay icon is another". Of all the things on the face of the earth, can anyone take a wild guess about the connection between Milind and Harjat Gill, an Indian born doctoral student of cultural anthropology, who had shifted to San Francisco at the age of 14? Well, one has to be more than a rocket scientist to be answering this question. The answer is that Gill is the director of a 27-minute film, which has been made under the banner of Tilotama Productions titled Milind Soman Made Me Gay! This film was recently screened in Mumbai and at Nigah Film Festival in New Delhi, besides Australia and San Francisco.

Gill hopes that after watching his film, people will wake up to the fact that it"s very difficult for the gay community to survive in a 'normal" world that refuses to see homosexuals in a good light. He has also given references of the infamous case filed against Milind Soman for appearing nude in the Tuff"s shoes advertisement. Though, the story does have Milind as its USP factor but it has something more to talk about, on the whole. In this film, Gill has tried to explore the time and tested topic of the bad treatment meted out at the homosexuals, who are also considered to be a taboo. Gill has tried to create a positive platform for such people through the medium of this film. Gill"s film revolves around three South Asian gay men residing in U.S, trying to discover their true identity and create a place called 'home".

The film tries to exonerate the society"s stereotypical 'I-give-a-damn" attitude towards homosexuality and that being gay is nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about. Besides the issue of gays, this film also speaks about the sensitive issues like Sikh riots in New Delhi in 1984 and violence against the South Asian communities" post 9/11.

Soman says, “Firstly, I was not informed about my name being used in the title. However, I have been constantly updated by my friends regarding this topic since last year, but I didn"t pay much heed to it." He also added that he was absolutely chilled out about the whole affair, “I think its fun…I don"t object to it at all. Not many people have their names in the title of a film, especially, one which has nothing to do with them. It"s something which has happened for the first time."