The first film with a gay main character in the Gujarati language was released this week.

Meghadhanushya – The Colour of Life was premiered last night (Thursday 25 April) in Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat state in west India.

‘As a doctor, I have seen what gay people go through,’ said the director of the film, former ayuvedic practioner K R Devamani, to Times of India.

‘I wanted to sensitize society at large. We can keep debating the issues surrounding gay rights, but first we need to accept them as part of our society. They are humans too.’

The film, set in the city of Ahmedebad, is divided into three parts: the main character’s childhood, when he reaches adulthood and his family try to persuade him to marry and his old age.

Prominent Indian LGBT rights activist, and prince of Rajpipla, Manvendra Singh Gohil, narrates the film at was at the premier.

‘The gay and transgender community mostly provides the comic element in mainstream Bollywood films,’ said Gohil. ‘Meghadhanushya is an attempt to change that perception.’

In 2009, Gohil spoke to Times of India about plans to commit his own life story to celluloid. It certainly has an interesting plot. Gohil is one of the only openly gay members of royalty the world over. His parents threatened to disown him when he did after a nervous breakdown in 2002.

Gohil appeared on the Opera Winfrey show in 2007 to tell his story and in 2009 starred in BBC reality show Undercover Princes, in which international royalty disguise themselves as commoners to find love in Britain.