COVID-19 second wave forces postponement of Kashish 2021 film festival

The 12th edition of the Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival was scheduled to be held virtually in May. However, the festival's organizers have announced that it has been rescheduled to 19 August–5 September owing to the current pandemic chaos in the country.

The organizers made the announcement on Twitter as well.

In a statement, they said, "Considering the situation of the raging pandemic in the country and across the world, and the anguish it is causing to everyone around, the festival’s executive committee and advisory board empathetically felt that we should reschedule Kashish 2021 to a later date."

The festival has already announced on its website its line-up of 200+ LGBTQIA+ films from more than 50 countries for this year's edition. It had also started early bird registrations for audiences.

Filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan, festival director, said, “As a film festival that is by the people and for the people, we felt that we cannot continue with the festival as planned due to the challenging situation all around us. We felt it was important for the situation to improve and people to heal before we celebrate the film festival in its true spirit.

"Also, like last year, as part of our ‘Kashish We Care’ initiative, we plan to donate 60% of the registration collections to NGOs [non-governmental organizations] working to offer relief to the transgender community during the pandemic.”

The festival also announced that it will be organizing screenings of some LGBTQIA+ films from its archives and continue the #KashishLiveChats on Instagram.