Nishit Saran's death at just 26 robbed the Indian gay community of one its most promising new faces. Nish erupted onto the Indian queer scene in 1998 with the release of SUMMER IN MY VEINS a documentary on his coming out as gay to his mother.
Nish, from
Delhi, had studied film at Harvard and had come up with the idea of the
documentary after taking a test for HIV just a few days before his graduation.
His mother was due to attend, and faced with the knowledge that he would have to
come out to her if he was positive, he chose to keep a video diary of the
process. It was a breakthrough film in India, presenting homosexuality in a very
straightforward way and suggesting that far from being shameful it was something
that even such a central Indian institution as the family could accept.
The film was released with a lot of publicity in India and Nish went on to be a
prominent voice in the media for the community in India. On April 23rd 2002,
Nish died in a road accident, along with four friends, when their car was hit by
a truck at a poorly lit intersection in Delhi.