| Riyad Vinci Wadia | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 19, 1967 Bombay, India |
| Died | November 30, 2003 (aged 36) Bombay, India |
| Cause of death | Tuberculosis, HIV |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Known for | BomGay |
| Home town | Bombay |
| Religion | Parsi |
| Parents | Vinci (Father) Nargis (Mother) |
Riyad Vinci Wadia (born September 19, 1967, died November 30, 2003) was an Indian independent filmmaker from Bombay, known for his film, BomGay (1996), regarded as one of the very first gay themed movies from India.[1] Born into the filmmaking Wadia family, he inherited the production company Wadia Movietone, known for the Fearless Nadia movies, one of its kind in the superwoman genre,[2] when the other movies of its time usually portrayed women in submissive roles. Wadia is also known for his documentary on Nadia, Fearless: The Hunterwali Story.[3]
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Riyad was born in Bombay to Nargis and Vinci Wadia, son of JBH Wadia, one of the forerunners of stunt films in India. The latter's production firm, Wadia Movietone, which Riyad would later inherit, launched the Australian actress Mary Evans into Bollywood, known more popularly as 'Fearless Nadia'.[4] Riyad did his schooling in Bombay and later went to Australia for a course in filmmaking. Riyad was openly gay and so was his brother Roy Wadia, who was working for the World Health Organization.[5]
Nicknamed as 'The Turk' of the Indian Independent cinema, Riyad's films are still being referred to in many books about Bollywood, be it gay themes in Indian Cinema, or the ones about JBH Wadia.[6] His first documentary, Fearless : The Hunterwali Story, on Nadia Wadia, got screened at over 50 international film festivals,[7] like Berlin Internation Film Festival (1994) [8] and London Film Festival (1993).[7] The short film, BomGay, with shooting locations like the gay cruising spots of Victoria Terminus urinals and the Mumbai local tracks along which people defecate, was described as "part Bollywood, part Genet". The film explored the underground gay subculture of Bombay and marked the entry of queer themes into Indian Cinema.[9] The film had a limited release in India, thanks to its explicit content.[10] It got screened in a number of international film festivals and finds mention in the research works on the history of queer themes in Indian Cinema as the first queer themed film from India.[11][12][13]
Riyad tested positive to HIV in 1995. Though he was quite able to afford the then expensive HIV medication, he had refused to be on any kind of dosage. He left India shortly after the production of BomGay, supporting himself with petty jobs in New York and writing an article or two for The New Indian Express. Things got difficult post 9/11, with not much jobs available, forcing him to get back to Bombay. Riyad was lost to Stomach Tuberculosis on November 30, 2003, in Mumbai.[5] He was then in the process of generating funds for his supposed first full length film (unfinished), Naked Rain, based on R. Raj Rao's novel, Boyfriend. “He made a very important contribution to the gay cause and was one of the central figures to begin the broad-basing of the gay movement in India,” said gay activist Ashok Row Kavi on Riyad.[14] An award has been instituted in his name, The Riyad Wadia award for Indian emerging filmmaker, in 2011, for the film that wins in the competition section of Kashish, Mumbai's International Queer Film Festival [15]