British actor Sir Ian McKellen got together with Sonam Kapoor on May 25th to flag off the 7th edition of KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival at the city’s iconic Liberty Cinema. The only thing traditional about the event was the ceremonial lighting of the lamp. Mumbai is proud to host South Asia’s biggest and India’s only mainstream LGBT film festival from May 25th-29th. 182 films from 53 countries, including 27 Indian films, will be screened at the festival that will be held at three South Mumbai venues – Liberty Cinema, Alliance Francaise de Bombay and Max Mueller Bhavan.
McKellen expressed how happy he was to be in India and to see that Indian filmmakers are attempting to portray the truth about gay people in their films.
On my first visit to Mumbai, I am very pleased to attend the opening night of the KASHISH 2016 Festival. For too many years, gay characters appeared in films only as comic relief, as often as not meeting a sticky end, as if that’s all they deserved. Increasingly, in India too, the film industry has matured, treating gay people with the same seriousness as straight characters. I look forward at KASHISH to discovering more about Bollywood’s film-makers who reject fantasy for the truth about gay people.Ian McKellen, Actor
Sonam Kapoor also stood up for the equality and dignity that the LGBT community deserves.
KASHISH is a wonderful opportunity that brings together talented filmmakers and the society together on a platform that advocates change in mindsets. Movies have immense power to influence people and bring about change. Every person in India is guaranteed equality and right to life and liberty, which includes the right to love a person of one’s choice, irrespective of sex or gender. The universal language that moves the world is that of love and Hindi films from its very beginnings have portrayed love in its many forms and shades. It’s time for the society to speak out against the law that criminalises people for who they love and restore them with the dignity that they deserve.Sonam Kapoor, Actor
While Sonam Kapoor chose a quirky outfit for the event, McKellen aka Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings series, wore a bright red t-shirt with a powerful message- ‘Some people are gay. Get over it.’
The Cate Blanchett starrer Oscar winning lesbian story Carol (2015) kick started the festival that has an interesting theme, ‘7 Shades of Love’. The five-day extravaganza will showcase old and new LGBT films, with its main agenda being to underline love as the core of all human relationships, gay or otherwise. At the inaugural ceremony, McKellen also shared a person story to woo Mumbai.
It was five years ago when my best friend asked me to come to India, because his husband is Indian. We came with an ex-boyfriend of mine from New Zealand and we went to Rajasthan. Everywhere we looked, we looked for gay population. We couldn’t find you because you were hiding in Mumbai.Ian McKellen
The KASHISH 2016 international jury comprises National Award winning actor Rajeshwari Sachdev, popular television actor Manav Gohil, filmmaker Parvathi Balagopalan, theatre director Kaizaad Kotwal and Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival, Festival Director Andrea Kuhn.
Anupam Kher’s Actor Prepares is also pitching in as a sponsor for the cause offering cash prises for the three top competition categories at KASHISH – Rs 30,000 for the Best Narrative Feature Film, Rs 20,000 for the Best Indian Narrative Short film and Rs 20,000 for the Best Performance in a Lead Role.
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