Mumbai, Jun 12 (IANS): As pride celebrations kicked off earlier this month, National Award-winning filmmaker Sudhanshu Saria's directorial 'LOEV' featured on Wikipedia's page that enlists LGBTQIA+ movies.

'Love is love' was the theme of Saria's directorial debut 'LOEV'. which earned unanimous acclaim from viewers and critics and support from the LGBTQ community.

Saria said: "I set out to tell a real story about the queer community; not paint them as heroes or villains but as people. Relatable and fragile and broken and I wanted to do this even when I had no idea how this story would ever get out and see the light of day.

"To see it celebrated like this around the world, even after all these years of release is truly overwhelming. The film's biggest accomplishment is it created a roadmap for other filmmakers. To not hide their queer story, to not turn their Rahul and Raj story into a Rahul and Simran story; to step forward with their version of love. Honest stories will always find a way to reach their audiences."

At the JIO MAMI 18th Mumbai Film Festival, director Saria's maiden movie was the first Indian film to play at the prestigious South by South West (SXSW) Film Festival and one of the first Indian films to be purchased out of Netflix on a worldwide exclusive basis.

Saria's directorial stars Dhruv Ganesh and Shiv Panditt as two friends who head to the Western Ghats for a weekend trip and how it morphs into a complex, emotional and sexual relationship.

Produced in partnership with Bombay Berlin Film Productions, 'LOEV' also features Siddharth Menon and Rishabh Chaddha in supporting roles.

The film's title is a deliberate misspelling of the word "love" representing that 'love' does not always mean the conventional man-woman, stereotypical style of love.