Bollywood filmmaker Onir Dhar faced an issue as he was gearing up to give a speech at the upcoming Bhopal Literature Festival. Readers would be aware that Onir has never shied away from speaking about his sexuality and is also a popular LGBTQ activist. It seems that a certain faction threatened to protest and cause ruckus at the event owing to his presence, which forced organizers to cancel his speech, in order to maintain peace at the literature fest.
Confirming the same, Onir Dhar took to Twitter to share the news and expressed his disappointment about being unable to interact with the audience of Bhopal Lit Fest. He said, “Shocked and Sad that an event I was really looking forward to speaking at had to drop me. Apparently there was a group threatening protest and violence and the police told the organisers that they cannot guarantee my safety. So they cancelled the event. Let me process this...”
Shocked and Sad that an event I was really looking forward to speaking at had to drop me . Apparently there was a group threatening protest and violence and the police told the organisers that they cannot guarantee my safety. So they cancelled the event. Let me process this... pic.twitter.com/AMSeG9CAa1
— iamOnir (@IamOnir) January 12, 2023
Meanwhile, in a statement given by journalist Abhilash Khandekar, who is a part of the Bhopal Lit Fest organizing committee, to PTI, he clarified that certain ‘government sources’ did not want Onir to give a speech at the fest. He was quoted saying, “It is obvious that any author should be sad in such a situation, but we were told by government sources that they do not want this kind of author in Bharat Bhawan due to security reasons as it may ruin the event," Furthermore, he continued adding that he didn’t want police and violence to be a part of the literature fest, and decided to avoid the speech. “When we were told that a question of his safety and security can arise in Bhopal, we requested Dhar about cancelling the speech. Someone suggested that police can be called, but we believe police should not be there in a literature festival."