After slaying audiences at its world premiere at the recent Wicked Queer film festival, Boston, Sisak , billed as India’s first silent queer love story is all set for its Indian premiere. The film will be screened at the KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival next month.While Sisak’s director Faraz Arif Ansari announced the news about its Indian premiere on April 21, KASHISH MIQFF director, Indian filmmaker and gay activist, Sridhar Rangayan, confirmed the same, saying, “Sisak is one of the eight films that is being screened in the Indian narrative short competition section of the festival this year.”An elated Faraz says, “It is a huge platform (South Asia’s biggest and India’s only queer film festival) where the community and people from the film industry convene, watch and discuss queer cinema. To have a screening here is a matter of great pride for us. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to share the film.”Faraz, who has been a regular at the festival for the past five years, notes that most shorts one gets to watch at queer festivals are about struggles,depression, strong battles within and with society, and coming out of the closet. “They seldom celebrate love, something that the whole community is fighting for. More queer films that celebrate love are the only way to propagate a change of heart in people who are against it,” says Faraz, who admits that he’s excited about how the film will be perceived in India.The 20-minute short film tells the story of two men (essayed by Jitin Gulati and Dhruv Singhal) who meet in the Mumbai local and fall in love, but cannot be together because their love finds no place in Indian society. Through its silence, the film also calls for real representations of queer people in mainstream cinema, thereby raising a point in favour of the global queer community.The film bagged the ‘Best of the Fest’ audience award (short film) at Wicked Queer, and is now on its way to New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF), Out Film CT (Connecticut LGBT Film Festival) and Cine Pobre Film Festival, Mexico. But Faraz wants to send Sisak to the National Awards as well. He says, “I would have done it this year, but you require a censor certificate for the same. Given the current atmosphere and the CBFC’s outright denial of certification to films like Lipstick Under My Burkha and Ka Bodyscapes, I decided not to send it, as a denial of certification it would have hampered my chances of going to international festivals as well. But I plan to enter the film next year. It will be really sad if the film is denied certification just because of its content and isn’t considered for the National Awards, though.”The festival’s theme aims to explore diversity of the queer community. Sridhar says, “Through our film repertoire, we want to put the spotlight on facets of gender and sexuality that aren't talked about (intersex, asexuality, etc.), racial and ethnic diversity as well how differently-abled queer individuals negotiate their sexuality.”Ever since it began in 2010, the number of Indian queer films has only grown at the festival. “In 2010, 27 films were submitted, but this year, we have received over 70 films. The quality of content has really grown, and it’s heartening to see a variety of interesting subjects being explored,” Sridhar adds.