Nearly two-and-a-half decades ago, Fire (1998), a film about homosexual relations between two women was lambasted by the orthodox rhetoric to an extent that theatres across the country were vandalised, recounts Sridhar Rangayan, director of Kashish Pride Film Festival. In its 15th edition now, the festival, which is slated to screen 133 films from 46 countries, will stage a conversation about the controversial film with its director Deepa Mehta and actor Nandita Das on May 18 at Mumbai’s Liberty Cinema from 4.30pm to 5.30pm. They are calling it a Fire-side chat.
Touted as South Asia’s biggest LGBTQ+ film festival, the five-day-long Kashish Pride Film Festival is the new moniker of Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival held in Mumbai annually and is organised by Kashish Arts Foundation.
