\n<\/p>\n
\n\tKaizad Gustad has returned to filmmaking after more than a decade with \u201cLala & Poppy,\u201d a pioneering love story centered on two transgender characters, making its world premiere at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe film marks a significant departure in Indian cinema\u2019s representation of trans narratives, casting actual trans actors Suruj Rajkhowa and Veer Singh in the lead roles. The story follows Lala, a trans woman, and Poppy, a trans man, as they navigate falling in love while undergoing their respective transitions.<\/p>\n
\n\tGustad, known for his 1998 breakout \u201cBombay Boys,\u201d found the inspiration for the project after meeting Rajkhowa five years ago. \u201cI met Suruj Rajkhowa accidentally, and I was really taken in by Suruj, their personality and their charisma and their camera friendliness,\u201d Gustad says. \u201cI wanted to tell a story in which gender didn\u2019t play a role after meeting Suruj.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe central conceit emerged from a simple yet unexplored premise. \u201cWhat would happen if a man who\u2019s transitioning to become a woman meets a woman who\u2019s transitioning to become a man?\u201d Gustad says. \u201cHow does the whole gender dynamics play out? How does a love story, if any, blossom from this? To my knowledge, it hadn\u2019t been told anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe filmmaker acknowledges his initial reservations approaching the material as a cisgender straight man. \u201cI had no real knowledge of the space at all, so I was extremely nervous about getting it right from the beginning,\u201d he says. The project underwent years of research and community consultation before filming.<\/p>\n
\n\tProducer Bobby Bedi, who has previously backed groundbreaking films like \u201cBandit Queen\u201d and \u201cFire,\u201d sees the project as addressing a crucial gap between legal acceptance and social reality in India. \u201cIndia has accepted the third gender a while ago. We\u2019ve accepted it constitutionally, we\u2019ve accepted it legally, but there\u2019s still not real acceptance,\u201d Bedi says. \u201cYou see people looking for jobs, not getting them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBedi emphasizes the film aims to reach beyond converted audiences. \u201cThe film is not designed for a specific LGBTQ audience \u2013 they are already part of the converted. We are preaching to the unconverted, which is the people at large,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor Rajkhowa, a performance artist who moved from Bhopal to Mumbai, being cast represented a rare opportunity. \u201cI clearly don\u2019t pass for a woman in the classical sense,\u201d Rajkhowa says. \u201cSo, for me, to be considered was more than anything, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tSingh, who is currently transitioning, describes the personal resonance of the role. \u201cThis story was really personal to me,\u201d Singh says. \u201cSeeing something like this in India, and for people like us to be played as ourselves on a big screen, it\u2019s really big, because we don\u2019t get this opportunity every now and then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe production assembled a notably queer-inclusive crew, with two non-binary costume designers, a non-binary behind-the-scenes photographer, and trans makeup artists. \u201cIt was a very safe space for us,\u201d Singh says.<\/p>\n
\n\tBoth actors draw distinctions between their representation and previous portrayals of trans characters in Indian cinema. Rajkhowa references performer Bobby Darling as an earlier figure who was often positioned as an object of ridicule. \u201cShe was an object to be laughed at, to make fun of,\u201d Rajkhowa says. The actors hope \u201cLala & Poppy\u201d will present trans characters as fully realized humans experiencing love, fashion, and everyday emotions.<\/p>\n
\n\tBedi commits to a theatrical release in India. \u201cI don\u2019t believe in this straight to streamer audience,\u201d he says. \u201cI believe in giving an audience the opportunity to make a choice.\u201d He\u2019s already in discussions with distributors and exhibitors.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe film underwent development at the international screenwriters lab Stories That Travel to ensure global resonance, and Bedi plans festival submissions to raise awareness of India\u2019s position on transgender issues. \u201cIt is important for the world to know where we are on this. We are one-sixth of the world,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\n\tDespite progress in some territories, both Gustad and Bedi acknowledge the increasingly fractious global political climate around transgender rights. \u201cWhen I started writing this seven, eight years ago, there was a lot more acceptance,\u201d Gustad says, noting rollbacks particularly in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\n\tHowever, the filmmaker remains focused on the universal themes. \u201cAt the end of the day, for me, it\u2019s more of a human story. These two are human beings first and foremost, they\u2019re male or female after that,\u201d Gustad says. \u201cIt\u2019s more about whether two human beings have the right to love each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGustad has already begun pre-production on his next project with Bedi, \u201cAuto Bhagwan,\u201d described as a real-time thriller set on rickshaws during the last day of Ganpati festival.<\/p>\n
\n\tHimman Dhamija served as director of photography, with Andrew Bellety handling sound design and Ankur Tewari as music supervisor. Art and production design is by Michri Thejaseno, with Anthony Pandey as first assistant director. Zaid Ali Khan is associate producer, with Varsha Bedi and Himman Dhamija as co-producers alongside producer Bobby Bedi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kaizad Gustad has returned to filmmaking after more than a decade with \u201cLala & Poppy,\u201d a pioneering love story centered on two transgender characters, making its world premiere at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. The film marks a significant departure in Indian cinema\u2019s representation of trans narratives, casting actual trans actors<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[1171,19724,19722,1253,11067,19723,1522,1905,2481],"class_list":{"0":"post-34805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-film","9":"tag-iffi","10":"tag-lala","11":"tag-love","12":"tag-pioneering","13":"tag-poppy","14":"tag-story","15":"tag-team","16":"tag-trans"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}