Swara Bhasker, Divya Dutta and Surekha Sikri to star in Sheer Khurma

Director Faraz Arif Ansari has roped in Surekha Sikri, Divya Dutta and Swara Bhasker as the main leads for his next project Sheer Khurma. The queer film will also star Kalyanee Mulay, Elena Roxana Maria Fernandes and Jitin Gulati in supporting roles.

Actors Surekha Sikri, Divya Dutta and Swara Bhasker are set to share screen space in Sheer Khurma. Directed by Faraz Arif Ansari, the movie also stars Kalyanee Mulay, Elena Roxana, Maria Fernandes and Jitin Gulati.

As per the makers, Sheer Khurma is ‘a story of belonging and acceptance, identity and family, and how it comes together as queer women of colour choose to embrace love that exists beyond their personal beliefs and social moralities.’

Faraz Arif Ansari , who has previously directed Sisak, India’s First Silent LGBTQ love story, has also written Sheer Khurma. Talking about his latest project, the filmmaker shared how he faced challenges to get his cast and crew together for a queer film.

“Sheer Khurma is a labour of love. After Sisak’s success, it took me a lot of time to find the soul for my next film. It was ironic, in a way, we bagged 59 international awards for Sisak so I was hoping the journey to make my next film would be easier. But making a queer film in India continues to be a challenge. Especially when the film doesn’t have any male protagonists but females. Production houses wanted me to make a queer film with male protagonists because masculinity is the flavour of the day, apparently. I was adamant on telling a story about courageous queer women of colour – the most ignored set, in most cinema across the world,” he said.

He further added, “Surekha ji, Divya and Swara were my wishlist while I wrote the film. Thankfully, they are also huge allies of the LGBTQIA community and immediately agreed to champion the subject by being a part of this film. I am very excited for Sheer Khurma taking the conversation about acceptance and love to a bigger mainstream dimension.”

Sharing her excitement on being a part of the project, Divya Dutta told indianexpress.com, “I have had a lovely association with Faraz. I am so sure that we will come out with something that is going to be sheer magic. He has given me lovely talent to work with – Swara and Surekha ji. And I think when you have such lovely, positive energies around and you are talking about a cause, there is no other way but to make a beautiful film. So I am looking forward to a different me in this film and to bring in a subject which really needs to be spoken about and not be a taboo ever.”

Sheer Khurma is set to go on floors this month and would be shot in Mumbai.

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