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NEW DELHI - Shrenik uses only one name to avoid being identified. The film director has not invited relatives or friends to the premiere of his film Lost and Found in New Delhi. He hopes his parents never see it.
This short black-and-white comedy focuses on two men on a crowded bus as they begin, covertly, to flirt, jolted about in the thick traffic. His is one of half a dozen films on being gay in India, which will be shown this week at the country's first gay arts festival.
"Such an event would have been unthinkable even five years ago," Gautam Bhan, one of the organisers of the QueerFest, said.
But the occasion has none of the self-assurance of Western gay pride movements. Promotional material made it clear photographers and broadcasters would not be permitted to attend, to protect the identities of those there. Shrenik said: "I'd be scared to show it to my family; my parents certainly wouldn't understand it."
In the enclosed bubbles of urban India, homosexuality is no longer much of a taboo but beyond the cities, it's hard to be openly gay. "You risk being thrown out of your home and losing your job. In a country which has no social security safety net, that's a big deal," said Sunil Gupta, curator of a photography exhibition mounted for the festival.
Though rarely enforced, section 377 of the Penal Code prohibits sex between members of the same sex, branding it an "unnatural" offence, punishable with up to 10 years' jail.
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