Color Positive
Savio Mascarenhas is 35, gay and resides in Mumbai. Professionally he is a personal assistant and while he is not working he manages a group called Color Positive. He is out to his family and friends and is dedicated to working for the betterment of the queer community. This is his story, the story of the founder of Color Positive.
Tell us more about Color Positive?
Color Positive is primarily a production house that brings out talent from the queer community as well as straight allies. We as a group put out stories that affect the LGBT community as a whole. Apart from this, we as a group are very passionate about Women’s Rights, Animal Welfare and Child Sex Abuse.
Color Positive is primarily a production house that brings out talent from the queer community as well as straight allies.
What started the inception of Color positive?
I was working as an executive producer for a play. It was then that I realized I should harness my creative abilities and do something on my own. I gathered a group of people from the queer community and wrote a few stories. Once the stories were finished, I put it out to the team and we started rehearsals. After receiving support from Queer Azaadi Mumbai, I wrote and directed my first play called ‘Color Positive’ with Vinay Arote as the producer and Balachandran Ramiah as the co-producer which talks about individuals with HIV and how life does not end with it.
We then called ourselves Color Positive and became a production house.
What is your role in Color positive?
I am the founder of Color Positive. I have directed two plays, written them and produced one of them. Along with the Color Positive team, I have also done our annual event. My role keeps changing depending on the need of the hour.
Currently, I direct, produce and playwright for my plays. I also manage the finances and fundraising.
Is casting challenging?
It is the most challenging aspect of managing our production house. We manage to dress up men as women and trans persons but we find it difficult to get LBT (Lesbian, bisexual and Transgender woman) representation in our play. Color Positive has reached out to a lot of organizations who work for the LBT community but I feel our message has not been able to reach them. We end up changing scripts or just scrapping a character in some cases because of not having cast members from the LBT community. Having said that, we have had awesome girls as straight allies, who stuck with us from the very beginning and have been the pillars for us for portraying lesbian characters in both our plays.
Color Positive has reached out to a lot of organizations who work for the LBT community but I feel our message has bet been able to reach to them.
What are the challenges while you prepare for a show?
People management and professionalism is my biggest challenge when I work with my team. Not everyone thinks that they should work for the community but my team has always been dedicated. Getting funding for the plays is also another challenge and takes a lot of effort.
How do you think Color Positive is creating a difference in the queer community?
Both our plays have been on issues like living with HIV and forced marriages of queer individuals.
We want to impact lives through our plays by touching on topics that are relatable and impactful.
Tell us more about The Color Positive Show 2018.
We as a group, after the completion of a year of performing together, decided to put up a show. The events official sponsor was The “Consulate General of Canada in Mumbai” and without their help, nothing would have happened. We owe a lot to them for their support and love their team who are always so awesome. Color Positive staged 2 plays, one called “Jeena”, our most celebrated play and the second play was Kranti’s “Lal Batti Express” which was huge as it talked about children of sex workers in the red light area in Grant road, Mumbai – which touches on one of our core missions. We organised LGBT Model Hunt 2018 for individuals from gay, lesbian and transgender community. We also organized a piece called Bezubaan, a ramp show for the LGBT and Allies who have been the unsung heroes of the queer community.
We as a group, after the completion of a year of performing together, decided to put up a show.
What are the future plans for Color Positive?
At Color Positive all ideas by our team members are taken seriously. We are growing and evolving every single day. As a group, we are planning to start our own music band/singers, we want to get into hosting parties more often, we want to do more plays and I have already started writing “Jeena – 2” and two other stories. We are also looking for awesome hosts for our YouTube Channel as well. People still remind us to take baby steps, ‘Don’t risk so much’, someone told me.
At Color Positive, we dont just raise the bar, we always try to challenge and rise above our own accomplishments.
I am very happy to have made so much possible in one year and we will continue to do more.
If someone wants to associate with Color Positive, how can they do so?
We would love that more and more people join us. We are looking for story writers, producers, directors, dancer, singers, actors, models, hosts and more importantly, raising funds. If one can help us, give us some direction, give us help backstage or even want to collaborate with us for an event, you can reach us at facebook.com/colorpositive and click the “Send Message” button below our cover picture/video.
To know more about Savio, follow him on @savio1818