Is Indian TV ready for transition

We take a look at whether or not, desi onscreen stories are ready for transgender characters, like their US counterparts

The popular American sit-com Modern Family has already pushed boundaries with the portrayal of gay parents Cam and Mitchell. This Wednesday, an episode on the show, named A Stereotypical Day, once again brought the LGBT issue to the forefront, this time with child actor Jackson Millarker, who is transgender in real life as well as on screen. The episode shows Cam and Mitchell introducing Tom to their daughter Lily, who despite her upbringing insults Jackson’s character, Tom. Much hilarity ensues but the audience is also taught a lesson in acceptance.

This is not the first time that American TV has portrayed transgender persons on their shows. The drama Orange is the New Black had Laverne Cox playing the role of Sophia Burset, a transgender who is brought to the jail for a credit card theft—a role for which she became the first transgender person to be nominated for the Emmy Award. Jeffrey Tambour also won the Emmy for Transparent where he plays the role of a transgender divorced, Jewish mother of three.

Closer home, as well, there have been a few breakthroughs when it comes to transgender portrayals. In the popular Indian drama Shakti—Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki, lead character reveals that she is actually transgender.

When asked about her television show Shakti and its avant garde stance, producer Rashmi Sharma said that it was high time that Indian television gives the community some representation. “They are normal people who would have worked if they were given the opportunity. We want to try and give them equal status in storytelling and thereby in society and Shakti is an attempt in doing so,” she said. “Television is a really strong medium and makes it easy to communicate your message to the audience.”

Bollywood actor Rajkummar Rao was all set to act in the role of a transgender woman in a Bengali film titled Ami Saira Bano before the project got shelved, and had gone as far as shaving his arms completely to look the part.

While Rajkumar's transgender role fell through, he is still open to doing such a portrayal in the future. “I had chosen to do the project because I wanted to portray the role, just as I portrayed the role of a Gujarati boy in Kai Po Che or an ex-army driver in City Lights. They are all roles and we, as actors take up the ones that appeal to us,” he said. However, the actor also believes that the Indian industry is ready to see transgender persons themselves portraying the roles, although male and female actors can definitely continue to do so. “If you go by the logic that you have to cast a transgender person in a transgender role, then why not doctors for doctors’ and engineers for the role of an engineer When I watched Paresh Rawal as Tikku in Tamanna, I felt Tikku’s pain. Having said that, I think that it would be great if someone did cast a transgender person in their movie. I definitely think that we are ready for it,” he adds.

However, erstwhile Splitsvilla contestant Gauri Arora, who recently made the transition from man to woman, strongly disagrees with the view that the Indian society is ready to accept transgenders, whether in reality or on screen. “While Hollywood is very experimental, I don’t think that Bollywood is quite there yet because the audiences would probably not be ready for it yet. We lack the education and openness of heart that it takes. The kind of pack mentality Indians have spurns anyone who is different,” she says.

The actor-cum-model also adds that it has been a struggle to find roles that do not slot her into the role of a caricature. “I will not demean myself with those kinds of roles. I am a diva; I am educated and I will stay true to myself. I want to do classy roles, whether they are fashion projects, music videos or something else. It has been very difficult for me though, since offers have been scanty since people in the industry are generally shy about approaching a transgender person for a role.”