I went to this pride march in 2018, where I saw this lovely gentleman and asked if I could click a picture. I am not much of a photographer and it was a really hot day. But the lighting was just good enough for my phone to take this picture. I had uploaded this picture to Facebook and Instagram back them, and some pages reposted this picture. But then I and everybody forgot about it after a week or so. In 2020, I decided I want to go out to socialise a bit because I needed some work in photography and on film sets. I was pivoting from a career in science, so I was rather desperate to find any work or thing to show for a resume. Someone recommended I try to get some pictures together and see if I could manage to open call exhibitions which has some celebrity guests as visitors. So, I submitted a bunch of photos, old and new, and they selected this. They wanted me to get a release permission from the person in the photo that they fully consent to the use of the picture, and a detailed account of any compensation said person might want for the use of this picture. I didn't know it was thing, but then I started to search for said person in the photo. Backtracking through people I knew from the Pride March, to ask their friends, who asked theirs, I found this person out in the nick of time. I called him up after people gave him a heads up, and explained the situation to him. It was a nice talk we had for an hour where I got to know that he is a teacher at a school, among other things. I asked him about the compensation for use of the picture, and he said, "Oh, I don't need that". Then he told me that the picture got him noticed by a director and the movie has been making some rounds, and it wouldn't have been possible if the picture didn't blow up for a few days. He told me that the director liked the picture so much, they kept this headpiece in the short. I asked him if he'd like to come to exhibition, and I told him that I'd like for him to get a copy of this from me. I decided to get it framed. After the call was done, I looked up the short only to realise the movie had by then been screened at a few international film festivals. Right around the time of the exhibition, in the three days between the call and the exhibition, BFA released a list of movies they'd screen. He made two posts on social media, one on how this random picture changed his life in many unthinkable ways, and another with the list from BFA. My friends send me pictures of the posts, and he had mentioned me in them!

He has done two more movies since, which have been going about the same circuits of international and international queer film festivals, and some national coverage but no commercial release in the country beyond festival screenings. Irrespective, I am very happy for him. It's weird to think so much happened without me knowing.