India is another of those countries that were once part of the British Empire and even after the Brits left and India became a republic they left behind some of the puritanical Laws they had enacted during the Victorian era. One of these in 1861 made male homosexuality illegal and it remained on the Statute books until 2012 when the Indian Supreme Court finally overturned it.
Now a new reality series from Prime Video documents the lives of queer couples in India in a fledging LGBTQ+ community. The series, Rainbow Rishta, is a celebration of love in the face of a conservative climate, and the first trailer introduces viewers to its glowing cast of six couples.
In the middle of filming the series, India’s Supreme Court declined to legalize same-sex marriage. “We live in a society where being queer is seen from an angle of ridicule,” says one cast member in the trailer. But in this series, it’s the queer people who get to laugh. The trailer depicts a heartwarming show, one full of beaming faces.
The cast includes actor and trans rights activist Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, drag queen Lush Monsoon (aka human rights lawyer Aishwarya Ayushmaan), and founder of LGBTQ+ youth organization Sadam Hanjabam, alongside Sanam Choudhary, Daniella Mendonca, Suresh Ramda, Aneez Saikia and Soham Sengupta
Rainbow Rishta is headed to Amazon Prime Video on November 7.
