Onir all set to make a film on sperm donation
Bengali film-maker Onir’s intent in continuing to make socially relevant films is quite appreciable. If reports are true, then Onir’s upcoming film (tentatively titled ‘Afia’) would be about the sperm-donation and the mafia which operates in this area. The path-breaking story is reportedly that of a 40-plus Bengali woman who desperately needs to have a baby despite growing old.
Though it wasn’t announced officially, Onir is said to be in talks with out-of-favour Rani Mukerji, the dusky Bipasha Basu and Nandita Das for essaying the central character in the film. Some Bengali actress whom Onir approached apparently didn’t want to play a ’40-year old’ woman, which forced him to extend his search to Bollywood.
Onir accidentally got to read some interesting facts and figures about sperm donation and decided at once that this would for the central theme of his next film. Some casual research by the film-maker revealed serious and acute irregularities in the procedure of clinical motherhood. Onir said that not many women are aware that they are legally allowed to have sex with sperm donors if they chose to do so.
Terming the provision as ‘shocking’, Onir reveals that the woman in the script of his film attempts to know the identity of her sperm donor despite knowing that it’s kept as a secret under the existing laws. Explaining further, he says that the law also provides the option that the donor could be the father in law or brother in law of the woman, which is unthinkable in the Indian context
Continuing, he says that “Some clinics offer the possibility of actually having sex with the donor, with the husband ‘present’ at the place (?!). After coming to know of many facts from the internet, we visited a few sperm banks in Mumbai and we spoke to people who availed these facilities.”
Source: Sulekha
