Pride Month 2026: Immerse in a screening and performances in Mumbai

A sill from the film. Pics courtesy/Anureet Watta

I started making this film when I began living in a queer household," says Anureet Watta, Delhi-based filmmaker and director of Don't Interrupt While We Dance (2026), a film that explores queer rage and joy. It began taking shape in 2024 and has so far been screened in six cities, with the next screening at a Lower Parel venue this evening.

The film is set in an apartment shared by queer friends who are celebrating a young transwoman Noori's 18th birthday, before being interrupted by the police. Explaining the use of this space, Watta says, "Once you start living together, you realise you don't really talk about coming out every day. You talk about milk; who's going to cut the onions; wash the utensils and so on. It becomes a communal space, a family of various people who have odd relationships with their birth families."

Anureet Watta

During the making of the film, the team lived together for six days, spending three days shooting and three conducting workshops for new actors. "I wanted to have a queer cast and crew for the film," shares Watta. While they brought in some familiar names such as Bonita Rajpurohit, they held auditions for the others. "Everyone was respected equally. There was no hierarchy." Funding was a big obstacle. Ultimately, 200 people from the community came together to contribute towards their crowdfunding effort.

At the centre of the film is the idea of anger. "I've made subtler films before. However, now I was keen to make something that didn't put us as victims of the story but people who drive the narrative," Watta says. Moreover, queer films have not been part of the thriller genre. Watta decided to explore that. The film was selected by the International Film Festival, a Delhi Government-run initiative, in March this year. Within the same week, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026 was passed. "It was such a weird feeling. It became important for us to take the film back to the people we made it with and to places we could talk about it."

Touring with it, and collaborating with other queer artistes, Watta says, "A movement has various aspects: one is the legal front, protests and activism, but there is also a cultural front. We need to keep meeting, keep feeling. A lot of the time, the cultural front is the entry point for those who may not care, but now get a chance to do it." Moreover, they believe that bringing queer artistes together means bringing several narratives together. At the Mumbai event, the screening will include another short film Iykyk (2024) by cast member Rajpurohit, and poetry and music performances by Hana-Evelyn, Geetanjali Kalta, Sahithya from The Bandits India. It will end with dance.

ON Today; 6 pm onwards
AT AntiSOCIAL, Plot 242, Mathuradas Mill Compound, Lower Parel.
REGISTER @dont.interrupt.while.we.dance