It was a dream come true for many LGBTQI+ individuals when Blued, India’s largest gay social dating app announced a contest letting the winners meet and greet the star cast of Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan; Ayushmann Khurrana and Jitendra Kumar in an intimate gathering at the The Imperial in New Delhi. The much talked about social romantic comedy drama Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan is all set to cut across several gender and sexuality barriers by being one of the first mainstreams Hindi film industry feature length films based on the sensitive topic of same-sex marriage. The film features the versatile actor and current heart throb of the nation Ayushmann Khurrana with Jitendra Kumar, Gajraj Rao, and Neena Gupta. This film is anticipated to be one of the biggest hits of the year while addressing crucially sensitive topic of LGBTQI+ identity proclaiming that love is love irrespective of gender stereotype.Addressing the gathering at the meet and greet, the spokesperson for Blued Mr. Sanyam Sharma - Marketing Director, Blued India commented, “Blued is the largest gay social app in India. While we have done out of the box campaigns in India, which focusses on strengthening the LGBTQI+ community with Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, being associated as exclusive dating partner, we aim at registering our presence as a brand which will always stand for the community rights and position our brand strongly to help the LGBTQ community in India.”
The rules of the contest were quite simple. The contestants had to register on Blued app, share the contest post on their individual Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter handles, and had to come up with a catchy phrase: “I WANT TO MEET AYUSHMANN BECAUSE….” while tagging @BLUED_INDIA and hash tagging #BLUEDXSMZS. The contest was essentially about meeting the cast of Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan while celebrating the association of Blued with the movie as exclusive dating partner. All of the blued users were open to participate in this contest and 10 lucky winners were decided on random basis as winners. The criteria were not limited to social media. As the final winners Jayant, Khushwant, Harshit, Pritiranjan, Parveen, Hitesh, Atul, Yatindra Dev, and, Sunny got a chance to interact with Ayushmann Khurrana and Jitendra Kumar conversing at length about the LGBTQI+ issues and strengthening the fact that such identities must be accepted in the society without being clichéd.One of the winners, Mr. Jayantwent out to comment on the still prevalent injustices which LGBTQI+ members have to face in the current Indian society even after the decimalization of the section 377. He said, “Although the act of love has been decriminalized but still the stigma is so deep rooted in the Indian psyche that we feel suffocated. With films like Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan and apps like Blued, we at least get a chance to breathe freely and come into the limelight with the dignity that we deserve but haven’t ever received. I am very thankful to Blued for giving us this opportunity to meet Ayushmann sir and hear his enlightening thoughts of the gender identity crisis that I and many of my friends face on a day to day