LGBTQ+ characters in films are not just for pink washing, but for substantial pivotal roles-Entertainment News , Firstpost
In conversation with filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan on KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival on inclusivity in cinema and how it is time to portray LGBTQ stories with a lot more empathy and a sense of hope.
Badhaai Do and Sheer Qorma shows sensitive queer representation in cinema
KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival started in 2010 as an attempt to mainstream queer visibility through cinema. Over the past 12 editions, the festival has grown in stature to become South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival, and a go-to event in Mumbai’s annual cultural calendar. The festival not only is a celebratory space for LGBTQ+ community to gather together to watch their own lives mirrored on the big screen, but also for the 30% of mainstream audience members it offers a window into LGBTQ+ lives and dispels myths and misconceptions they may have. KASHISH has become a beautiful community of LGBTQ+ and allies mingling together and sharing ideas, views and life-long friendships.
Sridhar Rangayan, the festival director says, “I truly believe in the power of cinema to change perceptions of the general population towards LGBTQ+ community and that is the reason we organize KASHISH year after year. We know that KASHISH has made an impact, and we sincerely hope that stigma and discrimination of LGBTRQ+ person will end soon, and we too will have an equal place in the society.”
As a filmmaker, who made his first film Gulabi Aaina in 2002, and travelled the film festival circuit with the film, Sridhar got to experience festivals as a community-building space. So, in 2009 after the Delhi High Court read down Sec 377, he felt it was the right time to host a LGBTQ+ film festival in a mainstream theatre. That was the beginning of the journey of KASHISH, from a modest 123-seater theatre at PVR Cinema to the 1200-seater Liberty Cinema since 2014, it has been a memorable experience bringing every year around 150 to180 films from 40 to 50 countries.
The festival has also expanded with many verticals – like KASHISH Global, where we take Indian LGBTQ+ films to festivals across the world, KASHISH Forward, the campus LGBTQ+ film festival (held at almost 50 colleges to date), and distribution of Indian LGBTQ+ films through Disney Hotstar and MxPlayer, KASHISH We Care Fund where support is given to LGBTQ+ organizations with funds, and most importantly the KASHISH QDrishti Film Grant, in partnership with Lotus Visual Productions, which offers Rs.2,00,000 to an LGBTQ+ filmmaker to make their short film. We have already produced 7 short films under this initiative.
Talking about inclusivity in Indian mainstream cinema, Sridhar feels Indian cinema is still coming of age with a few good portrayals in some of the films that have been released over the past decade – namely Aligarh, Angry Indian Goddesses, Evening Shadows, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, Shubh Mangal Zyaada Savadhan, and Badhai Do. “But these are just a handful, and it is really sad that we don’t have more coming from Hindi cinema which produces close to 500-600 films every year. What is heartening are the independent films, the documentaries and short films, and regional language films which portray with great sensitivity and candidness the true lived-in experiences of LGBTQ+ persons. These are the films which we showcase every year at KASHISH.”
This year KASHISH will be screening 30 Indian LGBTQ+ films, the largest form any country at KASHISH 2022, and there are seven feature length films – Antharam, Badhaai Do, Holy Wound, July, 2020, Naanu Ladies, Sanwari and Trans Kashmir. Also, the Indian Narrative Centerpiece film Sheer Qorma starring Shabana Azmi, Divya Dutta and Swara Bhaskar, directed by Faraz Ansari.
Sridhar says, “We need more mainstream representation regarding the LGBTQ+ community, and also space for LGBTQ+ filmmakers at the table, where they can tell their stories with sensitivity. We should not have LGBTQ+ characters just for pink washing but have substantial pivotal roles for them. We also should have real life transgender persons playing transgender roles and not cis men or women playing these parts.”
With the coming of OTT cinema become more inclusive. OTT platforms are definitely making cutting edge LGBTQ+ portrayals. Sridhar explains, “I am not sure is it because the format of storytelling, or the fact that web series need not have big stars or big marketing spends. Some of the fine examples are Fame Game, Inside Edge, Guilty Minds, Made in Heaven and Four More Shots. The queer portrayals in these web series are outstanding, real-life and are pivotal to the central theme of the series. However, we need more stories of the marginalized within the LGBTQ+ spectrum – the transmen, the non-binary and intersex persons. We still seem to have a lot of catching up to do with American, European or Korean web series which are far more evolved and representative of the diverse communities.”
The physical festival of KASHISH 2022 from 1st June to 5th June at Liberty Cinema and 2nd June to 4th June at Alliance Franacsie will screen around 140+ films from 53 countries and the online festival is from 3rd to 15th June at http://online.mumbaiqueerfest.com will screen additional 54 films – adding to a total of 184+ films from 53 countries.
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