KASHISH Initiatives
KASHISH has various initiatives to keep the mainstream engaged in the conversation around LGBTQ+ issues through the year using the medium of films.
KASHISH Forward
India’s first travelling campus queer film festival – is a series of one-day festivals that would travel to campuses across India, aiming to reach out and create awareness about issues of the LGBTQ+ community. The objective is to create an atmosphere of acceptance for queer students who would be grappling with issues of coming out in sometimes hostile environments. KASHISH Forward has held over 40 screenings in colleges across India, not only in Metro cities, but also Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
KASHISH Rendezvous
Considering the need for conversations around LGBTQ+, KASHISH Rendezvous is a one-and-a-half hour customized program of films and discussions for corporate companies. The films and discussions will be a window into the broad spectrum of the lives of LGBTQ+ colleagues. Besides sensitizing the audience to the issues of LGBTQ+ persons, it will show that their lives are no different from their own. KASHISH has been actively holding screenings, alongwith panel discussions, over the past two years to several corporate houses.
Best of KASHISH
Best of KASHISH film screenings are organized across India at film festivals, events and as part of Pride celebrations in various cities. Short films and documentaries that have won awards or were audience favorites in the previous edition, are programmed at these events to offer a glimpse of the Best of KASHISH. Best of KASHISH has also been released on Disney+Hotstar, MX Player and LesFlicks (USA) and GagaOoLala (Taiwan).
KASHISH Global
With a view to provide a platform for Indian filmmakers who make films on queer themes, KASHISH facilitates screenings of Indian LGBTQ+ films at various festivals, universities and cities across the world. KASHISH has developed close collaboration with more than 70 international film festivals around the world.
KASHISH Chalchitra Utsav
A day long film festival showcasing the best Regional language LGBTQ+ films from across India. This initiative was launched in January 2017 as part of Mumbai Pride events, and was held every year till 2019.
KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant
KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant is an initiative to encourage LGBTQ+ storytelling, especially to bring about greater visibility of South Asian LGBTQ+ narratives. This grant, sponsored by Lotus Visual Productions (a UK/India based production company) was launched in 2016 and has supported production of 8 films already. From 2021 the grant is specifically given to LGBTQ+ identifying filmmakers.
KASHISH We Care Fund
KASHISH We Care Fund was launched in 2020 to offer resources to 5 LGBTQ+ focused organizations, to assist them in reaching out with help to the LGBTQ+ community, specially the trans* community, during the COVID pandemic. KAHSISH donates 60% of its collections, through registrations, to 7 organizations across India under this initiative.
KASHISH We Care Fund was launched in 2020 to offer resources to 5 LGBTQ+ focused organizations, to assist them in reaching out with help to the LGBTQ+ community, specially the trans* community, during the COVID pandemic. KAHSISH donates 60% of its collections, through registrations, to 7 organizations across India under this initiative.
