mid-day editorial: Now, let's take pride in quality in LGBT films

Kashish, Mumbai's Queer Film Festival opens today. The annual Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) movie event is now in its eighth edition and has become a fixture on the film circuit in the city.

Now is the time for many of the films shown here, especially by Indian filmmakers, to go mainstream to a wider audience. Mainstream filmmakers, too, can also take some inspiration through this offering, which now has to move out of its 'niche' bracket. Hopefully, more venues will come forward to offer their space to Kashish, so that the audience, too, becomes more diverse.

The annual festival has the theme 'Diverse One' this year, and screenings are to be held at the Alliance de Francaise Bombay in Marine Lines, and at Liberty Theatre for the next five days. This time, there are so many films making their fest debut over here. We also have a Canadian actor starring in the opening film today attending herself.

More than the novelty value of 'LGBT' films, their USP should be quality. They should have artistic merit, rather than simply being attributed some kind of merit because they are queer-themed, or feature gay characters. We want to eventually move to a creative space where gay characters or themes are not a niche idea, when a filmmaker is no longer considered 'brave' for attempting this subject.

Members on the Kashish jury have also claimed that they will judge the movies on quality. This is the right way to take the fest mainstream. This is not to denigrate filmmakers who may have gone through huge challenges making an LGBT film. Nor is it to belittle the courage shown by those who dare to be different. It is simply to put the accent on quality rather than novelty, on artistic merit rather than simply the subject.