Mumbai, Jun 3 (IANS): Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar-starrer 'Badhaai Do' was screened at South Asia's biggest LGBTQIA+ film festival - Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival - during the pride month.

The film happens to be one of the rare few commercial films to have an LGBTQIA+ story at the heart of it.

Founded in 2010, Kashish has become an important medium for exhibition, production and distribution of LGBTQIA+ films. It has been voted as one of the Top 5 LGBT film festivals in the world, and also one of the Top 5 film festivals in India.

Commenting on the occasion, Rajkummar Rao said, "I am grateful that the audiences resonated so well with our film. Now that the Pride month is here, and celebrating it at a platform like KASHISH with a film that's so close to me is truly heartwarming."

The festival will be screening more than 190 films from 53 countries at Liberty Cinema from June 1 to June 5. Kashish is the first Indian LGBTQ+ festival to be held with the approval of the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India.

Talking about the film festival, director Harshavardhan Kulkarni said, in a statement, "It is an honour and a privilege to be able to screen our film at Kashish 2022, South Asia's biggest LGBTQ+ film festival. We are humbled that the film has been accepted with so much love and is being screened on this wonderful platform in the 'month of pride'. We hope our film can contribute in creating a world where love is love - nothing more, nothing less."

The screening of the film was attended by Rajkummar Rao, Chum Darang, Harshavardhan Kulkarni and Junglee Pictures CEO Amrita Pandey along with the film's team.

Junglee Pictures' 'Badhaai Do' has been directed by Harshavardhan Kulkarni with a script from Akshat Ghildial and Suman Adhikary. The movie, which released in theatres on February 11, was distributed worldwide by Zee Studios.