India, Oct. 3 -- In 2016, Rohan Kanawade lost his father. As the extended family gathered in their ancestral village in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district to mourn the passing of this man who had worked as a chauffeur and built a life in Mumbai, speculation swirled about why his 30-year-old son was not yet married. Pressure was mounting. Every day, someone accosted him with the question, Kanawade says.

It was becoming unbearable, but he wasn't sure he wanted to stir the pot. "My mother had lost her partner. She needed relatives. I wasn't sure how they'd react if I came out. Would it make her relationship with them more difficult?"

Amid the many rituals that mark the end of life in rural India, the interior designer-turned-short filmmaker...