Veteran actress Ila Arun, who will next be seen in the Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer Haddi, speaks to The Pioneer exclusively on the relationship between Haddi and the story of a transgender, camaraderie with Nawazuddin, and more.
SHIKHA DUGGAL
Even Ila Arun is bringing a revolution in digital content — because she’s playing the character of a very divine, influential being in her upcoming movie Haddi streaming only on the ZEE 5 from September 7. She made us note in the video interaction that transgender people have been a significant part of our society and culture for millennia. Even today their blessings are considered divine and to curse them is to invite god’s wrath! Isn’t it? So with the kind of composure and vigour she slips into the skin of the complex character that is Revathi Amma is worthy of unstinted applause. Ila wants her movie to be an admirable element and not a strange inert. “When our audiences start expecting too much from us — it tends to become a problem for an actor to showcase only the right representation. I am not allowed to go wrong, now! I was so happy to do this role because I was getting to live the many shades of “ammas” that are coming from “kinnar gharanas”. The presence of Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Anurag Kashyap makes the content even more worth watching. We are the well-known faces!, brings forward a scenario of the “enunch” community and that’s our most famous Rajasthani folk singer-turned-actress.
But what’s this relationship between Haddi, and a story of Transgender— we wonder! The Lamhe fame proposes her personal doctrine about this very interesting connection, “I have seen the society taking them for granted, they are spineless. They think so! Somewhere down the line, it also links to their physical deficiency. But what can we do? It’s a birth defect. However, that doesn’t make them any less stronger than the other genders! And what happens is, the sex-change operation also has a lot of physical and mental impact on them. Psychological issues will be going on with them! But, you can’t be judgemental especially on the way they look. How they look, and who they are is a vast difference that needs to be explored in our culture! I loved the title of my movie. Haddi is really a powerful connotation for the third gender.”
Eventually, Haddi will grab the attention of many and land up at the top of the criminal food chain. However, all this while, the lead protagonist seeks revenge for his transgender family, headed by our interviewee who was wronged by a powerful gangster-political, played by Anurag Kashyap. In anticipation of the same, she adduces, “I was only cramped to a kind of information that transgenders are only associated with giving “duaas” when I was being brought up in Jaipur. As soon as I started my career in Mumbai, when I saw them at a traffic signal that turned out to be a revelation to me. I couldn’t believe my eyes that they were asking for money at traffic signals. This is a racket! Abandoned children are kidnapped, they are even
kidnapped from hospitals as soon as they are born for this dirty business. During my research process, one of the transgender told me that all of them do not belong to the third gender. There are a plethora of men adopting the outlook of a transgender, and ask money finding it to be the easiest way of earning a source of income. It’s bringing a disadvantage to their community! I was shocked and perplexed. They are unemployed, what to do? Another revelation was, that the underworld, real estate builders, and police were involved in this racket. This crime is for real! I have been a part of this industry for almost forty years and let me tell you — it’s for real that the underworld has penetrated into our industry from a really long time. And when you go to a village, a zamindaar will be exploiting you. So all of us have been a subject of exploitation and that’s what our film is also about. Something that didn’t go down well with me a few years ago was the way how this gender was seen to be only as a comic relief! Thank God for OTT, times are changing. They bring you the true insights without the fear of censorship. All of us perform rituals, but until Taali came out how many knew that even the transgender community worship Durga Mata? They know mythology by heart. For a moment, during filming, I was devastated by myself that why did I overlook this aspect from so many years.”
The production houses give them costume designers, but their detailing isn’t as good as the ones she used to have in her times is what she felt during this exclusive interaction. They are the designers of this decade! So she designed her own costumes for the film. She gives an example of her really close friend Shabana Azmi who has never been dependent on a costume designer because they are the actresses coming from the atmosphere, the texture is also so important to them for the right representation. Ila never goes for superficiality even for a film, she needs authentication! Otherwise, she wouldn’t be able to dvelve into her character, that’s not her working process. So during the shoot she continued to look out for her own references. She decided her own “tika”, the way she will fill her “maang” and the chain she is wearing. The costume designer gave her some really heavy jewellery! Even the kind of blouses she will be wearing were approved by ILA and not the costume designer on board so that she can bring that devotion into her role. Transgenders are everywhere, but Ila Arun picked up an inference from the South region.
“I saw an unfathomable energy coming from Nawazuddin Siddiqui — he was unreachable. My shooting schedule had finished but I continued to be on the sets to see what is he actually doing! I was mesmerized by his body language, the one he picked up was so real. I really could feel he was also in despair because wearing a saree for a man is so uncomfortable. The process was rather simpler for me because our lead protagonist took hold of all the ceremonies, mainly. I can’t begin to tell the media, that Nawazuddin has lived the mental conditions of a transgender!
I am biologically a woman so I could instantly relate to the psychology of an “amma” and I am missing that community, it’s been a year. I was living with them and I was missing their petty fights also (she laughed). I felt a slight hollow in myself looking at their living conditions. They are the true warriors, not us! I was feeling really very empty for quite a lot of months after my schedule was over. Now Nawaz can write a whole book on them! For almost three months he was coming in and our of artificial wigs and boobs. He floored me,” shared Ila Arun on her camaraderie with the lead protagonist.
Something about the community set-up she lived for some months, Ila Arun described wholeheartedly, “The locations were very true to the areas transgenders live at. All of us were feeling troubled because of the weather, it was extremely hot. Especially Nawaz! It’s so good to see how the upcoming filmmakers want to shoot at the real locations because that’s when the real atmosphere hits you.
Studios cannot evoke those emotions that I felt in the real locations! Something very hilarious I noticed, so whenever the take was over, we were supposed to go into our vanity vans but these transgenders were okay sitting anywhere spreading their legs. I was wondering to myself what a bindaas attitude they have! When you listen to their conversations, you’ll understand their psychological needs even better. It wasn’t less than a tutorial for me.”
Finally, “There will be few similarities between Haddi and Taali — a transgender cannot be changed to avoid comparisons. I have done two projects with Sushmita Sen, and she’s a very intelligent woman. The challenge to her was how a woman could portray that third gender. Deliberately, I haven’t watched Taali although she’s my closest friend.Her make-up and her body built are garnering so much of attention. But Taali is not a revenge drama. But, both the projects are definitely going to bring accolades this year. That’s a certainty.”
