Trans'forming the film industry

This year’s Emmy Awards night was an iconic occasion for many reasons. One of them was Jeffrey Tambor, who won an award for his portrayal of a transgender woman in the TV series Transparent. In his acceptance speech, he advocated the idea that transgender actors should be the ones to receive trans roles. He also expressed his hope of being the last cisgender man to play a transgender woman on the screen. This not only earned applause from the LGBTQI community, but also set social media abuzz.

Indian cinema, Kollywood included, has been historically insensitive in the portrayal of transwomen, with either cis men playing them or a comedic or oversexualised twist being put to them. Prakash Raj’s role as Maharani in Appu is the perfect example of a trangender role being handed to a cis gender man. Another case in point is Bobby Darling, a transwoman who has mostly always been the comedic relief in movies — as if gender identityis a hilarious joke! Most of the Indian film industry has also remained completely mum when it comes to trans men.

A Revathi, a trans-activist and author who made her debut in the movie Thenavattu starring Jiiva and Poonam Bajwa, says, “I played the role of a mother in the film who ends up sacrificing her life to save the leads. But, there is a huge dearth of such good roles in Kollywood for us. We are presented as sex objects or as clapping on the roads, but the truth is far from what is shown in films. We are daughters, mothers, employees, lovers — not animals.” She goes on to say, “There have been films like Kanchana where the portrayal by Sharath Kumar was nice and we supported it, but why not give the role to someone from the community? Saying that no one will watch films if hijras are in lead roles is unacceptable. The commercialisation of the issue should stop.”

“It’s only fair that transgender people play transgender roles,” agrees Ojas Rajani, who was a part of the Shankar film I, and adds, “Indian society loves to mock and ridicule the transgender community on screen, irrespective of the actor’s gender identity. Then why not show a transgender woman playing herself instead of casting men? It’s only indicative of how hypocritical the society, and film industry, both are.”

Jeeva, a transgender actress who shot to fame with the film Dharmadurai, believes that the trans community needs good roles to break out of preconceived moulds. She says, “We’re being offered roles only as prostitutes or roles that ridicule our identities. I once went to a director to ask for a role, since I’d always wanted to be an actress — but he responded by shaming me by saying I was neither  a boy nor a girl. When I asked for a role specifically as a trans woman, I was given offers of the usual typecast roles.”

She goes on to say, “If we are cast as trans characters that are right now being portrayed by men, employment opportunities for our community would rise. People might also be able to see accurate portrayals, and we’d be able to break some stereotypes.”

(With inputs from Janani K)