Nishit Saran

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Nishit Saran (1977-2003) was an Indian gay activist filmmaker who made the documentary "Summer in my veins" [1]released in 1999/2000. He was one of the brave, young faces of the Indian gay movement who died in a tragic car accident at the young age of 26 in the year 2003. Born and raised in New Delhi he was a pukka punjabi munda who had the guts to capture of the most private moments of his life ( his coming out to his mother) on film. His death has created one of the most familiar faces of the Indian gay movement, his mother, Minna Saran. Minna Saran now soldiers on untiringly, relentlessly fighting the cause of decriminalization of homosexuality in India; she works through the organization "The Nishit Saran Foundation." Nishit went to the United States to Attend Harvard in 1994 to study filmmaking, He graduated with a Summa Cum Laude. After which he took up a teaching position at Harvard. This documentary has become a cult classic, a must watch film for every new and budding gay man in India. Saran was rare in his willingness to support for gay rights in India without any NGO agenda behind him and he wrote articles, reviews, essays and even came to colleges to lecture. An example of his writing is ‘My sexuality is your business’ in ‘The Indian Express’ of 8 February 2000, which attacked Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code [2] .Although his life was short, with one film Nishit has made his contribution to the Indian gay movement indelible and his absence is mourned by the Indian gay community. He died in a car accident with a Channel V VJ. [3]

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