Bollywood in a ‘trans’ phase

When mainstream superstar Akshay Kumar takes up playing a transgender in Laxmmi Bomb, you know change is happening in commercial Bollywood. Once upon a time, Bollywood heroism was about hyper-masculinity, machismo and testosterone, and about following the formula of a guy saving a girl from five men and the two eventually falling in love. Now, mainstream actors are increasingly in the mood to experiment, and cross-gender roles — where actors and actresses go for a gender reversal with the characters they portray — are becoming commonplace.

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Let’s look at some of the Bollywood actors who are set to play the other gender, and also those who have made a mark in the past with transgender or cross-dressing gigs.

Akshay Kumar Bollywood’s very own Khiladi will be seen playing a character possessed by a transgender spirit in the upcoming film, Laxmmi Bomb. In an early photograph of the film, Akshay was seen applying kohl in his eyes. In another image he sports a saree. The film is slated to hit the screens on June 5.

Adah Sharma Commando girl Adah will be seen playing a transgender woman in Man to Man. The film revolves around actor Naveen Kasturia’s character falling in love and marrying Sharma’s character, and later realising that she was biologically a man and became a woman after undergoing surgery.

Prashant Narayanan: It’s often said that it is not the hero but the villain that makes a crime thriller worth watching. This was the case with Prashant Narayanan’s role of the cold-blooded and creepy transgender psycho who brutalises women before killing them, in Murder 2. His character Dheeraj Pandey brought chills down everyone’s spine.

Aamir Khan: Bollywood’s Mr Perfect Aamir Khan did a drag queen’s dance in the film Baazi. That’s not it! He went ahead to play the opposite gender in some television ads for a digital service provider and a beverage brand.

Riteish Deshmukh: He was loved for his act the sexy Sanya in Apna Sapna Money Money.

Paresh Rawal The acclaimed actor played a eunuch in Mahesh Bhatt’s 1997 release Tamanna. Paresh played Tikku, a eunuch, who decides to raise an abandoned girl named Tamanna. The film was feted with the National Film Award for Best Film on Other Social Issues in 1998.

Sadashiv Amrapurkar No one can forget Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Maharani, a transgender villain in the 1991 hit film Sadak.

—IANS