'Lailaa Manju', Made By Mainly Queer Crew, Shot Between Two Lockdowns

Director Kamya N, whose crowdfunded queer-made film 'Lailaa Manju' will be screened at the KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival on Saturday, has shared that a lot of her crew members belong to the queer community and wanted their story to be out there with the film.

Kamya earlier worked as an associate-producer with a streaming platform and with the film has ventured into direction. She has made the film fully realised female gaze in the local Marathi language.

The director said, "I believe queer relationships need not always be star-crossed, impossibly challenged or hyperreal. We've had too many stories of queer suffering and not nearly enough about the margins in which healing happens, creative muses are found and life begins. My team and I have created a story about women in their spaces, connected with the things that matter to them. We've brought to life a fully realised female gaze in the local tongue (Marathi)."

The film follows the story of a daughter coming out to her mother, set in a pandemic-fuelled Mumbai.

She further mentioned, "'Lailaa Manju' is a crowdfunded queer-made film. That is, many members of our crew identify as queer and want our stories out there, told in the way we want to say it. Shot between two lockdowns, in a slim window of 7 days, its been almost 2 years in the making."