The Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival, will kick-start June Pride Month on 1 June by screening 194 films from 53 countries.
The hybrid festival will be held at Mumbai's Liberty cinema from 1–5 June and Alliance Française de Bombay from 2–4 June. The films will also be made available online from 3–12 June.
There are 30 Indian LGBTQ+ films at the festival this year, which includes feature-length narrative films, documentaries and short films.
The opening film is the Malayalam-Tamil feature Antharam about a transwoman’s journey of acceptance. The film stars transgender actress Negha.
This will be followed by the films Badhaai Do (2022), starring Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar and directed by Harshavardhan Kulkarni, and Sheer Qorma (2021), starring Shabana Azmi, Divya Dutta and Swara Bharkar, directed by Faraz Ansari.
While Badhaai Do plays as a Special Feature, Sheer Qorma will play as the Indian Narrative Centrepiece film, followed by a panel discussion on ‘mainstreaming lesbian and non-binary identities’.
“We are super thrilled to present such an amazing collection of LGBTQ+ films from India — 30 of them!" said festival director Sridhar Rangayan. "It reaffirms our position as India’s and South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival. And to showcase all of them on the big screen at Liberty cinema is a joy in itself. We are coming out of the pandemic lockdown for two years with flying colours and we hope audiences come to the festival to enjoy this grand treat we have for them.”
Other notable feature-length films lined up for the festival are Holy Wound by Asok R Nath with no dialogues, Naanu Ladies in Kannada by Shailaja Padindala, July, 2020 in English by Sahej Nandrajog, Sanwri: Love Beyond Gender in Hindi by Pallavi Roy, Trans Kashmir, about the transgender community in Kashmir by Surabhi Dewan, and Mumu Shelly by Batul Mukhtiar.
Kashish 2022 will also screen the first ever LGBTQ+ film in Sanskrit, titled Balbhushanani (Child Ornaments), directed by Chinmay Sudhir Shende.