To watch my movies with an audience in Mumbai was a very emotional experience and more overwhelming than I had expected. I have been to a lot of queer film festivals around the world and they can learn something from the way KASHISH is organized. It is wonderful.

KASHISH is the only mainstream queer film festival in India. By mainstream I mean where the films are screened at multiplexes and not in some institution or club. This is very significant as it brings lgbt films across the world to the community and audience in general so that there is not only more exposure to queer stories but it also in the longer run spreads awareness and acceptance.

KASHISH is at the forefront of that change and is doing so much to change minds and hearts among the wider public, and to strengthen and nurture the LGBT community’s own perceptions of itself in terms of dignity and humanity.

KASHISH is the need of our times when a community gets represented through performing arts. Gay rights cannot only be won in the courtroom but it has to win hearts and minds of the people. Cinema is a powerful medium to achieve that and KASHISH has been doing that since 2010.