Gender TROUBLE

If cis-gender actors can play transgenders on screen, why can't it be the other way round?

- Abhik Bhattacharya

FOR over a century, Indian films have portrayed transgender characters either as villains or have used them for comic relief. Such stereotypical portrayals fail to bring to the fore the complex lives of transgenders who have been living on the margins of society for thousands of years. Such character misrepresentation has been happening for too long, at least in the Indian film industry.

Though in the recent past an attempt has been made to portray the transgender community with utmost sensitivity in films and series, Sushmita Senstarrer Taali has initiated a pertinent debate—Can gender be performed? While a few transgender-transexual activists and scholars are of the opinion that actors, by the very virtue of their jobs, are free to take up any roles, another section thinks it is a time-tested mechanism to deny deserved representation to transgender actors.

Some recent films have chosen to focus on the complexity of trans lives, but cis-gender actors were picked to play the roles of transgenders. While Than gam (2020), a part of the Sudha Kongaradirected anthology Paava Kadhiagal, was critically appreciated for showcasing the character of 27-year-old transgender Saathar, who is secretly in love with their childhood friend Saravanan, the role was played by cis-gender actor Kalidas Jayaram. Even Vijay Sethupati’s noteworthy acting in Tamil film Super Deluxe (2019) couldn’t evade the allegation of appropriating the role of a trans woman.

Globally, though films like The Danish Girl (2015) and