Joopaka Chendur, a 34-year-old transgender woman and sex worker, spent her childhood in a small village bordering Telangana. The most important thing is to remember the rain. Her village in the Adilabad area of ​​Telangana will suddenly come back to life. The fishermen will hum a folk song while pulling elaborate fishing nets from the lake surrounding the village. The local fried rice ring called chegodilu will be generously served by beaming neighbors. share. 

Until the first day of the rainy season in 2011, Chendur's boyfriend broke up with her. 

"It would be euphemistic to say that he broke the rain for me," she said. "This was before I ventured into sex work. The sad thing is... he turned me into a comic in a matter of minutes." 

The breakup was caused by her boyfriend's obsession with transgender characters in the Bollywood movie Murder 2 (2011). This character hires prostitutes just to kill them and dump their bodies in a well full of greedy mice. 

"I beg him to reconsider his decision, but he has made up his mind," Chendur said. "On the day he left me, he said a sentence that destroyed my view of love forever:'Do you want to end up like the prostitute killer in Murder 2 who became an eunuch because he couldn't control his sexual desire?'"  

This incident had a profound impact on Chen Du. She hadn't even watched the movie back then, but every time she heard someone talk about it, she would feel her skin squirming. 

None of the Chegodilus helped her that day or in the weeks following. 

Bollywood has been ridiculing the lives of transgender people and their struggles, reducing them to evil sex workers, brothel owners and tired lovers. Every time, the heterosexual actor will write prose on the character. Recently, Akshay Kumar played the role of a trans woman in Laxmii (2020) on the road to revenge, and Vaani Kapoor will play a trans woman in the upcoming Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021). When these films were released, even NCERT had to succumb to the pressure of transphobia because they decided to make the school syllabus more friendly to transgender people. 

Although part of the audience still believes that actors are free to play any role they want, these stereotypical and heterosexual distorted depictions of transgender reality will only contribute to the existing transphobia. 

Ditilekha Sharma, a transmale queer feminist researcher and activist, talked about how stereotypes about transgender reality can eliminate many nuances in transgender identity. "Our film builds on existing stereotypes, but also adds to it," they said. “When Akshay Kumar dressed as a woman in Laxmii, it was assumed that all transgender people must wear saris. Bobby Darling’s portrayal of transgender women has long been seen as the only way transgender people exist. People don’t understand. There may also be transgender or transmasculine people. Even her name has become slander."

Talk to Alok Vaid‑Menon about art, activism and transgender movement

Avtar lives in Raike Kalan, Punjab, nearly a thousand kilometers from the village of Chandur. He is a 24-year-old transgender man who prefers to be called by his own name only. He works as a tailor in one of the famous clothing retail stores in Bhatinda. Avtar's ugly friction with Bollywood ended in the loss of his thumb. 

"[One day], my colleagues and I had a dispute about Sadak (1991) and they were very interested in a certain substance," he said. This 1991 hit movie starred Pooja Bhatt and Sanjay Dutt, and Marathi actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar also played the evolutionary brothel owner "Maharani". 

"It was shown on the TV in our store, and they kept mocking the pimp and imitating her," Avtar recalled. "I politely asked them to change channels, but they didn't listen. They told me to leave the store and come back after the movie was over. But it was December and it was cold outside. Besides, all of us slept in the store," Avtar said. 

When Avtar picked up the remote control and turned off the channel, things got tense. "I can't take it anymore. They are obviously laughing at me, and the exaggerated role of a heterosexual actor will only add fuel to the fire." 

Almost reflexively, one of the men pulled Avtar's thumb under the working needle of the sewing machine and irreversibly injured his thumb. "The pain is unbearable, I thought I lost my voice. I couldn't scream. But thanks to seeing so much blood, they woke up from the drug-induced coma, and they rushed me to the local hospital." 

Three years have passed since that tragic incident, and Afta has no choice but to continue working in the same shop. The shopkeeper did not take any action against these people and even claimed that they took care of Avtar because they sent him to the hospital. 

“I don’t know what the working conditions of other transgender people like me are in these male-dominated occupations. Just a few days ago, I heard that a straddle bike repairman in Ludhiana was affected by delayed delivery. Almost beaten to death by his master." 

Judicial protection for such crimes against transgender communities is almost non-existent. Just recently, a petition from the Supreme Court tried to include sexual crimes against transgender people into the scope of the law, which only recognizes criminal acts against men and women as valid. After this petition, a 17-year-old transgender girl was murdered by her brother in Tamil Nadu. Her brother did not agree with his sister's gender. 

In addition, government records do not reflect the true situation of transgender violence. The National Criminal Records Bureau (NCRB) only started reporting crimes against transgender people after the passage of the Transgender Protection Act in 2019. 

Halle Berry should not play a transgender man until a transgender man can play Halle Berry

Sandra Nandeibam, a 23-year-old transgender model from Imphal, Manipur, said that Bollywood's obsessive depiction of transgender life also permeated her romantic relationship. 

"Therefore, people's romantic interest in me is driven by fantasy and desire; the desire for something different, because transgender people are a temporary'achievement' for them, a badge they can wear with caution," Nandeibam Say. "Because of our one-dimensional portrayal in Bollywood, people often think that transgender people somehow lead a life without dignity and do not give us the basic respect that all lives deserve." 

In Nandeibam's view, transgender people are always "in a vicious circle" when the scroll life experience is transformed into real life. In neighbouring Assam, Arupa Phukan, a 39-year-old transgender entrepreneur, expressed similar views. 

"When we throw phrases such as'movies reflect the times we live in', we don't necessarily think about how they ultimately reflect and amplify transphobia," they said. "I still remember being shocked when I saw the 2004 movie Masti, which showed a trans woman kissing a protagonist in the movie, and he was disgusted when she realized she was transgender."  

In Masti, when the character realizes that he is wrong about the gender of a transgender character, he starts to gargle; in fact, when a transgender person is mistaken for a cisgender, the price they must pay is often fatal . In January of this year, a 21-year-old transgender woman in Chattisgarh was brutally killed when men around her found out that she was not a cisgender. 

Navya Singh, a transgender model and actor from Katihar, a small town in Bihar, has auditioned for major transgender roles and was eventually played by Akshay Kumar of Laxmi. "So this is not to say that transgender people don't audition for transgender roles. Most of the time, I don't fit their stereotypes about what a true transgender person is," Singh said. "They want someone who is more masculine, less feminine, and has a low voice. Although in hindsight, I am glad that I did not take up this role because it is an insult to our community." 

Singh recalled that about ten years ago, before she ventured into modeling and acting, whenever she went to an interview to apply for a call center job, she would face discrimination from her colleagues-obviously inspired by Bollywood. 

"In one of the interviews, I overheard two women talking about being there not to audition but to bless the room. One of them even told me that I should focus on work for my community-such as begging , Sex work, and magic. A large part of it stems from our movies because we are portrayed in these narrow, rigid ways."

She explained that this is why even children are afraid of transgender people, think they are evil, and plan to kidnap and castrate them. 

How the mass media portrays communities—especially ethnic minorities—has a profound impact on how society perceives and treats them. In the art we create and consume, we can indeed create a space of dignity for transgender people. Sharma noticed that there is always room for this kind of transgender expression in various folk art performances in India. "Bihu art in Assam or Sumanglila folk art in Manipur provides space for transgender characters with dignity and respect. There are no cartoons. Transgender people no longer waste time in Bollywood, but in We look for integrity in our own transgender-friendly civil space."

"We are a capable community," Singh said. "And we are all different, with all kinds of ambitions. Now is the time for Bollywood and the world to understand this." 

Arman Khan is a freelance writer and journalist based in Mumbai. He wrote about the intersection of gender, lifestyle and art.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields*.