A show that’s been making waves ever since its makers released the trailer is the Sushmita Sen-starrer Taali. Today, we have its creators, Arjun Singgh Baran and Kartk D Nishandar, sharing some exclusive deets about the show, Sushmita getting onboard, and more.
Tejal Sinha
‘Jis desh mai kutto tak ka census hota hai, transgender’s ka nahi, aise desh me aap jaise log ke beech me jeena, that is scary’. This hard-hitting dialogue, out of the many from the Sushmita Sen starrer Taali, wholly sums up the life of any transgender person. Well, it was Shreegauri Sawant, the transgender activist, who stood against society for the rights of the people in the transgender community. Thanks to the makers of Taali, that brings to light Shreegauri’s journey and struggles from being a 12-year-old until she is 40. And in the middle of it all, she is also a mother. For the unaware, she is the first transgender person to adopt a child.
While the show is winning all the right accolades and leading to a conversation now, today we have with us the creators, Arjun Singgh Baran and Kartk D Nishandar, speaking to us exclusively on the show.
When initially the first look and the project were announced, a lot of negative comments and backlash surrounded them, not only around the show but also the makers and Sushmita Sen too. However, on the contrary, when the trailer was released, the show
received immense love and accolades. And so, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the makers were confident that the efforts and hard work of the team would come out as a positive buzz. “We’ve been quite mindful and have done our best to tell this story without hurting any sentiments,” begins the creator duo, adding, “When we met Shreegauri Sawant, we had also met many transgenders, and over 2200 of them have been cast in the series. We have done our best to normalise the idea of trans representation in the entertainment world.”
When the project came to them, the creators revealed that it was written in Marathi by Kshitij Patwardhan, and when they read the script, they knew it could be transformed into a beautiful web series. “If we need to narrate the journey of an individual at great length, it’s not possible to finish it within two hours. It is essential to understand the person’s graph. That’s when Kshitij Patwardhan converted this material into a web series. When we passed the information to Shreegauri that we were zeroing in on Sushmita Sen, her reaction was that there cannot be anyone better than her to play the part.”
A filmmaker or a creator always has a picture of an actor they feel would do justice to a character. And in this case, Sreegauri herself was confident that no one could be better to play her part than Sushmita Sen. Talking of the picture the creators had in their minds, Arjun enthuses, saying, “Shreegauri has a very feminine personality. Undoubtedly, she is a fiery activist who filed a petition for the recognition of the third gender, but she is also a mother who adopted a child. We needed someone who had power and motherly gentleness, and only Sushmita seemed to have the perfect blend of both. Sushmita herself is a mother and very devoted to her children, and she has been our choice from the very first day. Characters who have gone through a lot are portrayed in cinema or elsewhere with anger against society, but our character is not at all this way. We are telling the story of a beautiful mother, and Sushmita has played this part with all her heart without reducing it to a caricature.”
Bringing a life story, especially that of a transgender person, who is often looked up to as a minority, could be pretty challenging. And for the duo, finding someone who could capture and reflect Shreegauri’s energy was a huge challenge. However, once Sushmita came on board, they knew she could be trusted to do justice to Shreegauri’s journey authentically and with great dignity and grace. Recalling to us the moment the duo approached Sushmita to play the part, Karn shares, “When we approached Sushmita, she read and reread the script at least four to five times and literally lived with the character till she became one with it. Then acting coach Atul Mongia came on board and helped her to fine-tune the transformation, and our director Ravi Jadhav guided her to get the nuances of the Marathi diction right. She also worked very hard on her voice modulation. She committed completely to Taali, and today we cannot imagine anyone else playing Gauri other than her.”
The transformation that Sushmita has brought with this has been pretty surprising and commendable. And so, the duo revealed that Sushmita was excited about the script right from the time they first approached her. “She kept reading the script and immersed herself in it. She took around six months to read the script, and by then she knew it by heart. She was so in tune with the script that during the shoot, if we added or changed a line, she would tell us instantly that it wasn’t there originally. She does her homework very well. Sushmita was shooting for Aarya 3 during a certain phase, and she was also supposed to begin dubbing for Taali. She reassured us, “I will do the dubbing, and within 10 days,” she was in the dubbing studio, which speaks volumes for her professionalism,” shares Arjun, revealing that during a rain sequence shoot that spanned over two days, Sushmita was such a thorough professional that even though she had a high fever, she did not complain once. “She has razor-sharp focus, and this is one of the reasons why she has become such a formidable icon.”
Gauri is a huge inspiration as a human being who not only triumphed over societal challenges but also adopted the daughter of a deceased AIDS patient. And thus, the creators reveal that since both Sushmita and Shreegauri Sawant have been adoptive mothers, they bonded closely over this common factor. “Usually what happens is that when Sushmita Sen is in the room, she is naturally the sole speaker. But when Gauri and Sushmita came together, their camaraderie was something worth watching. The most remarkable thing about Shreegauri is that, irrespective of who she sits in front of, she will find her space in the conversation. She talks so logically, and there is immense confidence in the way she carries herself. Sushmita too has a hugely powerful yet immensely warm personality. To see both of them together is an absolute joy.”
As we come to the end of this interview on a brighter note, the duo shared that Sushmita’s passion for bringing Shreegauri’s struggles and triumphs to life is clearly visible in every scene. “She is a very intuitive actor and internalizes the characters she plays. Her voice is extraordinary, as is her understanding of complex themes. This is why when she delivers a dialogue, no matter how short it is, people listen with undivided attention,” signs off the duo.
