KASHISH 2022: Badhaai Do and Sheer Qorma lead a dazzling array of Indian LGBTQIA+ films

At KASHISH 2022 30 Indian LGBTQ+ films are to be screened at Liberty Cinema from June 1-5 with Badhaai Do and Sheer Qorma leading the pack.

KASHISH 2022 South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival will kick start June Pride Month on June 1, screening around 194+ films from 53 Countries at Liberty Cinema (1-5), Alliance Française de Bombay (2-4), and online (3-12). Indian LGBTQ+ films lead with the highest number of films at the festival, totaling 31 films that include feature-length narrative films, documentary films, and short films.

“We are super thrilled to present such an amazing collection of LGBTQ+ films from India – 30 of them! 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 2 years with flying colors and we hope audiences come to the festival to enjoy this grand treat we have for them”, said Sridhar Rangayan, festival director. 

The festival opens on June 1 with an Indian film this year, titled Antharam in Malayalam and Tamil, about a transwoman’s journey of acceptance, played by real-life transgender actress Negha. This will be followed by big-ticket films like Badhaai Do, starring Rajkumar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar and directed by Harshwardhan Kulkarni, on June 2 and Sheer Qorma, starring Shabana Azmi, Divya Dutta, and Swara Bhaskar, directed by Faraz Ansari on June 4. While Badhaai Do plays as a Special Feature, Sheer Qorma will play as an Indian Narrative Centerpiece film, followed by a panel discussion titled, ‘Mainstreaming Lesbian & Non-Binary Identities’.

Other notable feature-length films are Holy Wound by Asok R Nath with no dialogues, Naanu Ladies in Kannada by Shailaja Padindala, a non-binary filmmaker, July, 2020 in English directed by Sahej Nandrajog, and Sanwri - Love Beyond Gender in Hindi, directed by Pallavi Roy. Two other notable films are Trans Kashmir, about the transgender community in Kashmir by Surabhi Dewan, and Mumu Shelly by Batul Mukhtiar.

Also interestingly, KASHISH 2022 will screen the first-ever LGBTQ+ film in Sanskrit, titled Balbhushanani (Child Ornaments), directed by Chinmay Sudhir Shende. There are films in various Indian languages like Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujarati, Urdu, Kashmiri, and Assamese.

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