<p>Anjali Ameer will soon be the first transgender heroine of a south Indian movie</p>

- Anjuly Mathai

As the camera is being set up, Anjali Ameer drums her fingers on the chair, looking bored. Wearing a black jump-suit with her hair falling in soft folds about her, she looks stunning. Then, it’s time for action and the transformation in the 23-year-old transgender actor is fabulous. The bored look vanishes, she throws her head back, pouts and arches her body. One feels like letting out a low whistle at the effortless poise with which she strikes various poses.

When I go to the makeup room as she gets ready for the second phase of the photo shoot, I watch the hairstylist pile up her hair and pin it on one side in the way Malayalam heroines of old used to. Ameer is dissatisfied. “This is very ordinary,” she whines. Yet, she says it mildly and later, decides to go with it. I’m reminded that this is no star that I’m talking to. This is someone who has been through a lot and is still getting accustomed to being in the limelight.

Ameer was born as Jamsheer to a Muslim family in Thamarassery near Kozhikode, Kerala. From a young age, she knew she wanted to be a girl. When, at the age of 15, she got into a relationship with a boy from her neighbourhood, her family was shocked. She was ostracised and, at 16, she ran away to Chennai, where she lived with the transgender community there. She came back at the death of her father, but her stepmother and brothers were unwilling to accept her.

“I lost my family, my friends and everyone I loved after coming out as transgender,” she says. “I don’t know if I’m im

Dit verhaal komt uit de January 07, 2018-editie van THE WEEK.

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