Solaris Pictures is an Indian film production company based in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...

. It was created by

Sridhar Rangayan Sridhar Rangayan (also spelt Sridhar Rangaihn or Sridhar Rangayyan; born 2 April 1962) is an Indian filmmaker who has made films with special focus on queer subjects. His queer films, ''The Pink Mirror'' and ''Yours Emotionally'', have been c ...

, and

Saagar Gupta Saagar Gupta (born 4 March 1969) is an Indian screenwriter, lyricist and film producer. He has written screenplay and dialogues for independent films like ''The Pink Mirror'' and '' Evening Shadows'' as well as dialogues for several TV episo ...

in 2001. The two have gone on to create several award-winning films under Solaris Pictures' banner, focusing on

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term i ...

issues and

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

Introduction

Solaris Pictures is an Indian

film production Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, castin ...

company that has makes films covering issues such as

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

and

gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , ...

. Previous productions include: ''

The Pink Mirror ''The Pink Mirror'', titled ''Gulabi Aaina'' in India, is an Indian film drama produced and directed by Sridhar Rangayan. Said to be the first Indian film to comprehensively focus on Indian transsexuals with the entire story revolving around two ...

'', which has won two Best Film awards, and was screened at over 72 festivals; ''

Yours Emotionally '' Yours Emotionally'' is a United Kingdom-Indian co-produced film written by Niranjan Kamatkar & Sridhar Rangayan and produced by arts charity Wise Thoughts (UK) & Solaris Pictures and directed by Rangayan. It stars Premjit, Pratik Gandhi, ...

'', which was played at several international festivals; and '' 68 Pages'', which won the Silver Remi award at the 2008 WorldFest Houston. These films are made in a unique style that combines

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

melodrama with international avant-garde film techniques. Solaris Pictures is the associate producer of Project Bolo, an Indian LGBT

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people w ...

project that interviews 20 Indian LGBT people in Mumbai, Pune,

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and divisio ...

, and

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the NCT Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati B ...

. Solaris Pictures has produced two documentary features about the LGBTQI community in India - '' Purple Skies'' (2014) and ''Breaking Free'' (2015). ''Purple Skies'' highlights the stories of LBGT people victimized and subjugated by the law, the family and society, as well as stories of youngsters who have come out of the closet bravely. The film was telecast on India's National Network Doordarshan in 2015. The film screened at 27 international film festivals. In '' Breaking Free - Sec 377'', filmmaker and gay activist Sridhar Rangayan exposes the human rights violations faced by the LGBTQ community in India due to a draconian law Section 377, and homophobic social mores of a patriarchal society. It won the Barbara Gittings Human Rights Award at qFLIX Philadelphia in 2016. The company has also collaborated in producing more than 100 hours of television content for serials like Rishtey, Gubbare, Kagaar and has produced advertising for companies like

Life Insurance Corporation of India Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is an Indian central public sector undertaking headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Finance, Government of India. The Life Insurance Corporation of I ...

H & R Johnson H, or h, is the eighth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#Le ...

, Godrej, Rupa,

Zee TV Zee TV (stylised as ZEE TV) is a Hindi general entertainment pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription bus ...

. Thei social awareness films and spots for the

National Institute for Hearing Handicapped National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ...

Cancer Patients Aid Association Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal bl ...

and Cama & Albless Hospital have been telecast on both

DD National DD National (formerly DD1) is a state-owned public entertainment television channel in India. It is the flagship channel of Doordarshan, India's public service broadcaster, and the oldest and most widely available terrestrial television channe ...

and Mumbai

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest b ...

. Solaris Pictures is one of the principal organizers of

Kashish Mumbai Queer Film Festival The KASHISH Pride Film Festival (earlier known as KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, also known as Mumbai International Queer Film Festival and Mumbai Queer Film Festival) is an annual LGBTQ event that has been held in Mumbai, I ...

that was first held in April 2010 in Mumbai at

PVR Cinemas PVR Ltd (formerly Priya Village Roadshow Ltd), doing business as PVR Cinemas, is an Indian multiplex chain based in Gurgaon. PVR pioneered the multiplex revolution in India by establishing the first multiplex cinema in 1997 at Saket, New De ...

and

Alliance Francaise An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

and then in 2011 and 2012 at

Cinemax Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent ...

Versova and Alliance Francaise. Solaris Pictures has also organized

Flashpoint Human Rights Film Festival Flashpoint Human Rights Film Festival was a four-day festival held in Mumbai, India between 8–10 December 2010. It screened eight films from around the world that dealt with human rights issues at a macro as well as at a micro level; from g ...

in Mumbai and New Delhi in 2010/2011 and 2011/2012.

Movies

Evening Shadows

Drama/ 102 mins / India / 2018 / Hindi with English subtitles
Directed by

Written by:

Producer: Solaris Pictures Evening Shadows - In a small town in Southern India that lives within a cocoon of traditions and social morality, when a young gay man Kartik (Devansh Doshi), comes out to his mother Vasudha (

Mona Ambegaonkar Mona Ambegaonkar (born 5 March 1970) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi films and television. She has featured in over 15 plays, 18 feature films, 38 TV projects, 37 advertising campaigns. She had a minor role in film ''Hazaar Chaurasi Ki ...

), her entire world comes crashing down. She has no one to turn to dispel her fears and doubts, to understand her loving son’s truth. Moreover as a woman, trapped within a patriarchal conservative society, her biggest challenge is to deal with her dogmatic husband Damodar (

Ananth Narayan Mahadevan Anant Mahadevan (born 28 August 1950), also credited as Ananth Narayan Mahadevan, is an Indian screenwriter, actor, and film director of Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil films and television shows. Having been an integral part of the Indian t ...

), and the conservative society around her. ''Evening Shadows'' is a universal story about a mother-son bonding and its emotional strength to withstand the ravages of time and harsh realities

The film has won 19 awards and screened at 72 international film festivals. It is currently streaming on Netflix.

Breaking Free

Documentary/ 82 mins / India / 2015 / English, Hindi subtitles
Directed by

Written by: Sridhar Rangayan & Saagar Gupta
Producer: Solaris Pictures Breaking Free – Sec 377 is a 2015 movie directed by

and produced by Solaris Pictures. In this documentary, filmmaker and gay activist Sridhar Rangayan embarks on a personal journey to expose the human rights violations faced by the LGBTQ community in India due to a draconian law Section 377 and homophobic social mores of a patriarchal society. The film was selected to be part of the Indian Panorama (non-Fiction) and screened at International Film Festival of India in 2015. It won the Rajat Kamal

National Award The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorat ...

for Best Editing (Non-Fiction) in 2016 for its editors Pravin Angre and Sridhar Rangayan. It also won the Barbara Gittings Human Rights Award at qFLIX Philadelphia in 2016. It is currently streaming on Netflix.

Purple Skies

Documentary/ 66 mins / India / 2014 / English, Hindi subtitles
Directed by

Written by: Sridhar Rangayan & Saagar Gupta
Producer: Public Service Broadcasting Trust and Solaris Pictures Purple Skies is a 2014 movie directed by

and produced by Public Service Broadcasting Trust and Solaris Pictures. It documents the opinions of lesbians, bisexuals and trans men in India. It was also broadcast on

in 2015. The documentary film showcases stories of the LGBT community about living in India and is the first documentary on LGBT topics to be screened on a national network,

. As of 2015, it has been screened at 27 international film festivals.

68 Pages

Drama/ 90 mins / India / 2007 / Hindi with English subtitles
Directed and Written by

Producer:

Humsafar Trust Humsafar Trust ( meaning 'companion' in Hindustani: hi, हमसफ़र, ur, ہمسفر) is an NGO in Mumbai which promotes LGBT rights. Founded by Ashok Row Kavi, Suhail Abbasi, and Sridhar Rangayan in 1994, it is one of the largest and m ...

Associate Producer: Solaris Pictures Coming from a country like

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

that is still in denial, where being HIV+ is still a curse, 68 Pages rips open the underbelly of its society to reveal how it stigmatizes and shuns those who are

HIV+ The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immun ...

or even those who just want to be what they are. Through 68 Pages of a counselors diary, we see the stories of Paayal, a

sex worker A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker" According to one view, sex work i ...

; Nishit, an ID user; Kiran, a

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

man and Umrao, a

transsexual Transsexual people experience a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desire to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance (including sex reassignm ...

bar dancer - their stories of pain and fear, humiliation and rejection - not only by the society, but even by their loved ones. While these stories expose the shallowness of the system, it also offers hope and healing by trying to bring about a better understanding of their fight to live with dignity. The film is a tribute to the human spirit of optimism and survival.

Yours Emotionally

Drama/Gay / 86 mins / UK-India / 2006
Directed and Written by

Producer: Wise Thoughts (UK) Associate Producer: Solaris Pictures (India) Two Brits, Ravi and Paul travel to India where they meet Murthy and Anna an older gay couple that have managed to form a partnership and live together for over 20 years. When Ravi meets and falls for Mani an

n national who is betrothed to be married. He turns to the older couple for advise and help but traditions die hard in India.

The Pink Mirror

Drama/Gay /40 mins / India / 2003 / Hindi wst English
Directed and Written by

Produced by Solaris Pictures (India)

pits two Indian

drag queen A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part o ...

s against a westernized gay teenager in a battle to woo a handsome hunk. It's a clash of the east and west. The drag queens, who are expert in the art of seduction with their wit, innuendo and cunning or the young teenager who is saucy, slutty and sly? Underneath the campy humorous exterior, the film is an exploration of the

landscape and understanding of the deep, humanly tender bondings that exist between drag queens in India who form unique, non-patriarchal families. Using the

soap idiom of song, dance and drama and for the first time in the Indian drag queens' very own language, Hindi, the film also explores other veiled issues related to the Indian

community: the lurking threat of

.

The film is screening on Netflix

Awards

Solaris Pictures' films and television projects have won several awards, both Indian and international. * Silver Remi Award at WorldFest 2008, Houston (for film "68 Pages") * Jury Award for Best Film at ‘Fire Island Film Festival 2004, New York, USA (for film “Gulabi Aaina) * Best Film of the Festival award at ‘Question de Genre’ film festival 2003, Lille, France (for film “Gulabi Aaina) * RAPA award for Best Comedy Episode, 1999 (for “Piya Ka Ghar” – Gubbare, Zee TV) * RAPA award for Best Telefilm, 2000 (for “Khamoshiyaan” – Rishtey,

)

References

External links

Official site

imdb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solaris Mass media companies established in 1991 Hindi cinema LGBT in India LGBT arts organizations Film production companies based in Mumbai 1991 establishments in Maharashtra Indian companies established in 1991