Trans characters were mostly there as stereotypical beggars or sex-workers on the streets providing comic relief. For the longest time, mainstream media has portrayed trans people with the most garish broad strokes and Bollywood has been no different. “Most times when I watch anything trans-related, I forget to breathe properly,” says black transsexual writer and activist Kuchenga, in her review of the Netflix documentary Disclosure (2021), a documentary made by trans-creatives that talks about the history of trans representation in pop media. Even if we willingly overlook how the entire film was more about accommodating the inflated masculinity of its cishet hero and barely delved into the complexities of being a trans person in a largely transphobic country, there is still a major problem: the trans character, Maanvi, is played by a cisgender actor. The rest of the film mainly follows Manu’s journey of unlearning his transphobia. Manu (played by Ayushmann Khurrana), a gym owner, falls in love with Maanvi (Vaani Kapoor), who, it is later revealed, is a trans woman. Released at the end of last year, it was positioned as the first-ever film to have a trans woman as a lead character. Look at Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021) for instance. Glossing over the nuances, they end up whitewashing the very issues they claim to be championing. Unsurprisingly, though, with the exception of Badhaai Do, most of these films are capitalising on queerness merely as a token premise. The release of Badhaai Do (2022) close on the heels of Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (2019) and Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (2020) gives us hope that LGBTQIA+ themes in cinema are growing into a real trend in India.
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