At the recently concluded 3rd Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, Chilean film “My Last Round” (“Mi Ultimo Round”), directed by Julio Jorquera Arriagada, won the Best Feature Film Award.

But what was interesting, and not publicised at the event, even though Bollywood actor Anupam Kher was the chief guest and also gave away the Best Film trophy, was that Kher himself had sponsored the prize money of `50,000 that accompanied the trophy.

What’s more, Kher has promised that his sponsorship will be an annual feature at the festival every year. Ask him why, and he explains, “It sort of dawned on me when I was there that it is only the quality of work that matters when it comes to cinema, not who makes it. Cinema has no boundaries. You know, actually, I was supposed to make it to this festival’s opening ceremony, but I couldn’t. And then I came for the closing ceremony, and had made up my mind beforehand to stay for just 15 minutes as I had another appointment. But I ended up spending one-and-a-half hours here, watching cinema, discussing, talking, soaking in the atmosphere. I was surprised with myself. After all these years in cinema, I made a discovery. Cinema really has no boundaries, it is us who go with pre-conceived notions. Later, I learned that one filmmaker here had made a film called “Logging Out” on a budget of just `3,000. And that made me think. The initial prize money for Best Film was `10,000. I raised that to `50,000 and also, my company plans to sponsor this amount and award every year.”

Just for recollection, though Kher has never come out as a gay activist or anything, he was one of the first actors to portray a gay man in Hindi cinema in “Mast Kalandar”. “I don’t have to be a gay activist to recognise good cinema and support it. My approach here is purely work-oriented. I am on a platform where films are made, and good films are appreciated. It does not matter which section of society makes them. I saw the movies here, and they have the power to affect the viewer, make him think. And if cinema is meant to break barriers, these movies are a wonderful attempt to provide a mainstream platform for the LGBT community, which despite everything, is still relegated to the margins. And fighting such odds, if films can be made in zero budget, like I have seen at Kashish, then I would not be surprised if `50,000 can produce a blockbuster tomorrow,” he clarifies.