MUMBAI: "Aligarh" writer Apurva Asrani and his partner Siddhant pretended to be cousins for 13 years, so that they could rent a home in Mumbai together. Asrani took to Twitter and revealed the fact on Friday evening, now that the couple has finally managed to buy a home in Mumbai.

(Also read: Apurva Asrani and Siddhant, who pretended to be cousins to rent houses, finally purchase new home)

The gay couple has also disclosed their actual relationship to neighbours.

"For 13 years we pretended to be cousins so we could rent a home together. We were told 'keep curtains drawn so neighbors don't know 'what' you are'. We recently bought our own home. Now we voluntarily tell neighbors we are partners. It's time LGBTQ families are normalised too," tweeted @Apurvasrani.

Asrani also shared a photo of himself along with his partner Siddhant, along with a picture of their apartment's name plate that reads: "Apurva and Siddhant".

Apurva Asrani is a scriptwriter and a National Award-winning film editor. He has written the story, screenplay and dialogue of Hansal Mehta's acclaimed directorial "Aligarh", a film he also edited. The 2015 film, featuring Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao, was a nuanced effort portrayal of the homosexual's plight in our society based on a real incident.

In 2001, Apurva won the National Film Award for Best Editing for "Snip!", a bilingual comedy directed by Sunhil Sippy.

(Also read: Bollywood writer-editor Apurva Asrani suffers from Bell's Palsy)