Queer Azaadi Mumbai (Mumbai Pride) 2012 starts officially tomorrow with a week of fun, empowering activities for the queer community in India's largest city.

One of the organisers Pallav Patankar told Gay Star News that an incident at a fundraiser last Friday, when anti-gay rights activist Haji Ahmed Sahab Bawa called police to break-up the party, could work in the festival's favour. 'This is Pride and this is a political movement and if we're going to be cowed down by threats like this it's not going to happen,' he said. 'The situation has made the community come together and stand-up for themselves.'

The festival starts tomorrow with a photography exhibition and classical dance concert at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the first social work university in India, which Patankar said is 'extremely queer supportive'. On Sunday there's a film screening organised by Kashish, Mumbai's International Queer Film Festival held in May. A panel discussion on 'Media and Society - out of the closet' will follow the short films.

On Tuesday a flashmob Bollywood dance will hit an unsuspecting strip of a beachside promenade in Mumbai - the exact location is secret. Around 150 dancers, mostly 18 to 25 year olds have been rehearsing a choreographed hit Hindi song. 'At the end of the flashmob they’ll put up the Queer Azaadi Mumbai banner and will show the audience that they’re all queer,' said Patankar.

The group made a similar revelation at the pre-festival Queer Games last Sunday. After games of lemon and spoon race, three-legged race and tug of war, in which local kids who happened to be there had joined in, they announced to the crowd that they were all gay and were raising money for Queer Azaadi Mumbai. 'We are not like this but we will certainly come for the march,' said one young local kid in response.

An open mic night called Dirty Talk is the highlight of Wednesday. 'I’m going to talk about my relationship with my mother,' said Patankar. 'She had a lot of questions about my sexuality and how do men have sex and I shared it all with her, so I call it my dirty talk with my mother.' On Thursday there's a queer version of The Amazing Race where participants have to follow clues and travel around the city only using public transport (which as anyone who has been to Mumbai will know is enough of a challenge in itself).

Also on Thursday, Patankar's personal favourite, the transgender Dancing Queens, will take to the stage. 'Every year what I always look forward to the Dancing Queens,' he said. 'They present a Bollywood-style dance and really interact with the audience so it’s a lot of fun.' All of the Dancing Queens work in the HIV sector, as counsellors or program managers.

Friday is the Rock Concert in Carter Road Amphitheatre, a beautiful location outdoors by the sea. The performers are singer-songwriters Alisha Batth and Alisha Pais, conscious hip hop rapper Ashwini Mishra, band Fungus, surgeon-turned-bass-guitarist Kris Bass and German multi-instrumentalist Ralf Kamphuis.

The finale of Queer Azaadi Mumbai will be on Saturday with the Pride March which will end at Mumbai's famous Marine Drive. Last year 2,500 to 3,000 people marched, and Patankar expects the same this year. 'We’ve been growing every year, the year before last we were maybe around 2,000,' he said. 'What’s interesting is that earlier in Pride marches people used to walk with masks on their faces so as not to reveal their identity but slowly that’s going away and people are showing their faces, being more bold about it.'

Queer Azaadi Mumbai began in 2008, but there have been Pride marches in Mumbai since 2005.