The Story
OrganizerKASHISH was founded in 2010 by filmmaker Sridhar Rangayan, following the 2009 Delhi High Court ruling that read down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and decriminalised consensual homosexual relations between adults. The festival's first edition ran from 22 to 25 April 2010 across two Mumbai venues, screening 110 films from 25 countries under the theme 'See A Different World'. It was the first LGBTQ film festival in India to be held in a mainstream multiplex, and the first to receive clearance from India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. From 2010 to 2016 the festival was organised by Solaris Pictures with The Humsafar Trust as co-organiser; since 2017 it has been run by the not-for-profit KASHISH Arts Foundation, in association with Solaris Pictures. The festival went fully virtual for its 11th edition in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, becoming one of the first major Indian film festivals to do so. In 2024, marking its 15th year, the festival was renamed from KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival to KASHISH Pride Film Festival, a change organisers described as reflecting the festival's broader, more inclusive mandate. The 17th edition ran 3-7 June 2026 at Liberty Cinema, Alliance Française de Bombay, and, for the first time, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai.
KASHISH holds a specific historical place as India's first LGBTQ film festival to secure government clearance and to screen in mainstream multiplex theatres rather than private or community venues, at a moment (2010) when doing so was still a genuinely contested act. It has since been recognised internationally, cited among the world's top LGBTQ film festivals and drawing participation from prominent Indian film figures including Shyam Benegal (festival patron) and, in various editions, Ian McKellen, Nandita Das and Sonam Kapoor. Structurally, it is a not-for-profit, community-founded festival rather than a government or corporate initiative, and its stated mission, using cinema to mainstream queer visibility and dignity, positions it as advocacy-through-culture rather than a purely artistic showcase. It is South Asia's largest LGBTQ+ film festival by scale and remains among the region's few queer film festivals of comparable size and duration.
KASHISH remains active, having run its 17th edition in June 2026 with 154 films from 43 countries, an average annual footfall of roughly 9,500-10,000 attendees, and an expanded venue footprint including Mumbai's National Gallery of Modern Art for the first time. The festival has been public about facing financial pressure in recent years, describing itself as needing support amid what organisers have called shifting global policy conditions affecting funding for LGBTQ+ cultural programming. For institutional and CSR audiences, KASHISH is a distinct case among festivals in this Atlas: a long-running, internationally recognised, not-for-profit cultural institution built specifically around advocacy for a marginalised community, rather than heritage preservation, tourism, or general arts promotion, and one whose continuation depends more directly on external funding support than most other festivals profiled here.
Brought queer stories into mainstream Indian film-going spaces and nurtured queer filmmakers.
