Actors who effortlessly nailed transgender roles

Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar attempted playing a transgender in his latest release Laxmii which is garnering mixed reviews from the audiences and critics. While Akshay's Diwali release tried to make the politically correct noises about the transgender community, the plasticity of the narrative apparently left his fans disappointed. The response to Akshay's Laxmii avatar yet again proved that to pull off a transgender role is not an easy task but there are actors who have delivered an outstanding performance as they blur the lines of gender on screen.

Mumbai: To play a variety of roles is what every actor's dreams are made of and ability to do justice to the given opportunity is what evaluates artists' calibre. Bollywood which is driven by the star system has no dearth of actors who have time and again proved their worth with their craft.

Akshay Kumar as Laxmii

Today we are revisiting some of the brilliant performances where actors have nailed transgender roles without breaking a sweat.Sharad Kelkar

Sharad Kelkar as Laxmi from Akshay Kumar starrer Laxmii

While Akshay Kumar headlined Laxmii, it was Sharad Kelkar who won applauds for hitting a few interesting notes while playing the original Laxmi in the Raghava Lawrence Hindi directorial debut. The reason for positive chatter around Sharad's performance is that he did not give in to the temptation to overdo his act and restrained himself from colouring transgender role with broad strokes.Paresh Rawal

Paresh Rawal as Tikku from Tamanna

In the 1997 film Tamanna, versatile actor Paresh Rawal played the character of Tikku, a transgender and the only child of yesteryear Bollywood actor Nazneen Begum. The National award-winning actor had once admitted that the role of Tikku is one among few that challenged him as a performer. Mahesh Bhatt's film depicted life in a transgender with nuances and Paresh poured his heart and soul to bring Tikku alive on screen. Ashutosh Rana

Ashutosh Rana as Lajja Shankar Pandey in Sangharsh

Ashutosh Rana is known for delivering nuanced performances and bring life to the words written on paper. His astounding act of a serial child killer, Lajja Shankar Pandey in Sangharsh sent chills down audiences' spine and manages to do so till today. The Tanuja Chandra's film brought Rana Filmfare Award in negative role category but he was not the director's first choice for the role. He gave a call to Tanuja as a woman and managed to fool her for good ten minutes it was then she got convinced that Rana is the suitable choice for a near-psychotic transgender role in the film. And the actor who has the repute of a gentleman in real life went on to establish himself as the scariest villain Bollywood has ever seen.

Ashutosh Rana as Shabnam Mousi

In 2005, Ashutosh yet again got into the skin of transgender, Shabnam Mousi. He convincingly portrayed the struggle of a eunuch who transcends societal oppression to become a successful politician. Rana garnered praise for a compelling performance befitting Shabnam's journey of disrespect to respect.

Mahesh Manjrekar

Mahesh Manjrekar as Begum in Rajjo

In 2013 release Rajjo Mahesh Manjrekar played Begum, a brothel madam. In debut director Vishal Patil's film, Mahesh stood out for not delivering a stereotypical portrayal of the character. Talking about his creative process for the role, Mahesh had once said that he tried to keep the depiction as normal as possible keeping humanity at the core of his performance.

Sadashiv Amrapurkar

Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Maharani from Sadak

Sadashiv Amrapurkar's Maharani act from Sadak is one among Bollywood's iconic villainous roles. Sadashiv played the most dreaded brothel queen in Mahesh Bhatt's film and bagged Filmfare Award for his stupendous performance. Signature tune composed by Nadeem Shravan added oodles of ambiguity and enigma to the character of Maharani. Amrapurkar managed to evoke terror every time he comes on screen. As an obnoxious transgender pimp, Sadashiv wrote his name in golden letters in the history of Hindi cinema as he was the first to bag Filmfare Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role that was institutionalised to acknowledge his performance.

Prashant Narayanan

Prashant Narayanan from Murder 2

Prashant Narayanan was not apprehensive about playing a transgender in Murder 2 and was happy to do such a different role as he could experiment as an actor. Prashant had once said that he did not do research or rehearse much for the part but blindly trusted the director and the result was out there for everyone to see when he stole the thunder of leading actors in the film.

Nirmal Pandey

Nirmal Pandey in a still from Daayra

Nirmal Pandey delivered a breathtaking performance as transvestite in Amol Palekar’s Daayra, a sensitive exploration of sexual identity and gender stereotyping. The late actor delivered moving performance with such ease that by the end of the film, you start feeling for the character. Though the film did not release theatrically upon its DVD release critics heaped praise on Nirmal for being able to elicit sympathy through his act.