This year’s Queer and LGBT program at the 9th Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival (MIAAC) looks quite promising with a weekend full of events. The program kicks off with the NY premiere on Friday Nov 13th of Two Paise For Sunshine, Four Annas For Rain, an ode to old Bollywood songs and an affirming relationship between a gay man on the rebound and a sex worker past her prime,

Although Dostana, starring Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham and Priyanka Chopra, was released a year ago, it’s still being featured globally in film festivals and a dominant topic in the discourse of queer representation in Bollywood. And, “Shut Up and Bounce” and “Desi Girl” (and their various mixes and versions) continue to pack the dance floor at Desilicious! EGO Magazine recently caught up with Dostana director Tarun Mansukhani to discuss the

Set the identity politics aside, please. For tonight, at least. Desilicious is all about the party, being yourself, and having fun, fun, fun. Desilicious is a monthly phenomenon featuring the frenetic gyrations and contortions of the dark and the beautiful. Orientation (sexual, political, vertical) be damned! In a city long past “firsts”, Desilicious is New York’s first social space for queer desis to party amongst their own. In doing so,

“Hello, my name’s Shazia Mirza — at least that’s what it says on my pilot’s license!” The young Muslim woman who says these words is dressed in a hijab and in this post 9/11 world, where every Muslim is viewed a terrorist, she manages to elicit laughter from the audience, rather than horrified stares. Shazia, you see, is a stand up comic and like a handful of South Asian comics,