Is Bollywood ‘trans’itioning?

When the Ayushmann Khurrana and Vaani Kapoorstarrer Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui released in December last year it garnered a lot of interest for its sensitive portrayal of a difficult subject The film revolves around Manu Khurrana a cisgender male bodybuilder in Chandigarh who falls in love with Maanvi Kapoor a Zumba instructor only to later find out that she is transfeminine a person who was assigned male at birth identifies with a female gender identity and chooses to transition to womanhoodSupratik Sen who cowrote the film with Tushar Paranjape says ldquoSince we donrsquot belong to the LGBTQiA community it was very important for us to really know that world so that we donrsquot say anything which is emotionally unauthenticrdquoBut filmmaker and editor Apurva Asrani who cowrote and edited Shahid 2013 identifies as a homosexual feels that ldquorepresentation is keyrdquo to create an authentic experienceChandigarh Kare Aashiquirsquos writers Supratik Sen and Tushar Paranjape say they were conscious of the fact that they didnrsquot belong to the community but tried to be as thorough as possible with their researchMrittika lsquoMoursquo Sarin a queer screenwriter storyteller and producer shares the sentiment ldquoWhen a queer person writes these scripts it allows room for a more nuanced portrayal of experiences that only queer people go throughrdquo For instance the feeling of hurt from microaggression or when someone doesnrsquot take your identity into consideration or the fear of coming out and shame that one experiences when not being able to live their identity ldquoThese are situations that straight people havenrsquot been in and canrsquot always fully comprehendrdquo she explainsDespite their apprehensions both Sarin and Asrani believe that straight people can write scripts but ldquoresearch and collaborationrdquo is a must ldquoYou need to speak with queer or transgendered people about their experiences Itrsquos also important to never assume that you know everything about the character Take their feedback at every stagerdquo Sarin addsApurva Asrani and Mrittika lsquoMoursquo SarinParanjape and Sen tried to be as thorough as possible They initially got the idea from Simran Sahni a friend of the filmrsquos director Abhishek Kapoor Sahni has two trans daughters who were born male and transitioned to female ldquoGetting the facts right and not undermining the struggle of Maanvi was an important part of the processrdquo says ParanjapeSen explains that the idea of writing is to inhabit different worlds and charactersmdashwhatrsquos important though is to get the nuances right To make sure that the experience didnrsquot feel detached or superficial Sen and his cowriter consulted a few people from the community one of whom was Sahnirsquos daughter Seher ldquoWe heard their stories what they had been through and got a glimpse into their lifestylerdquo says Sen Other experts included psychiatrists and doctors Asrani suggests a writing programme Likho by The Humsafar Trust an NGO for the communityAsrani says whatrsquos often lacking is ldquodeep empathy for the communityrdquo In Bollywood the trans experience has never really been done justice to They are usually portrayed as sex workers evil people or made fun of ldquoThe mainstream for decades has ridiculed and vilified the LGBTQiA community Our movies lsquootheredrsquo themrdquo points out AsraniChandigarh Kare Aashiqui was a step forward as it had a trans woman character in the lead If the makers faced flak it was for having a cisgender actor play a trans role Only recently Vijay Raazrsquos portrayal of a trans woman in Gangubai Kathiawadi sparked a debate online Akshay Kumar too was seen in a trans role in Laxmmi Bomb 2020 Paranjape and Sen agree that casting a trans person would have lent their character Maanvi more heft but they also say that trans actors should not be the only ones playing such roles ldquoBut the film industry has still not reached a point where theyrsquoll cast trans actors in trans roles let alone cis roles Unfortunately at this point the pendulum is swinging all the way in favour of cis people This doesnrsquot mean we need to do this foreverrsquorsquo adds SarinSuch criticism was missing in the 1990s when renowned actors like Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Paresh Rawal were seen in trans roles Asrani says ldquoAt that time there was a lot of ignorance about the community But the world has shrunk with the Internet Now nobody will be able to get away with the nonsense they pedaled back in the dayrdquo But instead of insisting that a trans person play a trans role Asrani says hersquod rather have a trans person on the writing teamAccording to Sen what is noteworthy is that Bollywood is no longer shying away from telling stories that are more inclusive Also having a popular face playing these roles helps bring more visibility to the issue ldquoIt can get your message across to a larger audience Bollywood has that kind of impact and reachrdquo he says ldquoIt the film shouldnrsquot be in your face otherwise you can lose some of your audience The aim is to gently educate people while entertaining themrdquo