LGBTQIA+ film festival postponed to September

(L-R) KASHISH Core Team Saagar Gupta, Pearl Daruwala, Sridhar Rangayan, Shibu Thomas, Pallav Patankar ——In the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak, one of the top five LGBTQIA+ film festivals in the world, Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, has been rescheduled.Touted to be South Asia’s biggest queer film festival and the first such festival in India to be held in a mainstream theatre, Kashish, which was slated to be held from May 20-24, 2020 at three venues in South Mumbai has now been pushed to September.The festival director, Sridhar Rangayan, said, “We feel that precaution is the best way and it is time for all of us to stand in solidarity and ensure everyone’s safety and health.We look forward to being able to share a later date in September with everyone to celebrate Kashish 2020 with the same grandness, joviality and community bonding that the festival is known for.”The much-awaited festival, held over five days in the city, will celebrate its 11th edition this year. The organisers said that the festival’s film program is locked and they will play all the selected films in their September edition and that they hoped to add more value to the festival with the time at hand. Not many know that this is the first Indian LGBT festival to be held with approval by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India.