Sameer Tewari’s Baapya is about a woman who returns to her village in the Konkan as a man. The gender reassignment surgery that has transformed Shailaja into Shailesh shocks Shailaja’s ex-husband Anya, their son Sanjya, Anya’s second wife and the rest of the community.

The Marathi-language movie, starring Sacred Games alum Rajshri Deshpande and Girish Kulkarni, will be out on May 15 in cinemas. The cast includes Shrikant Yadav, Devika Daftardar and Aaryan Menghji.

Baapya, based on an idea by Priti Nair, is a rare film with a trans man as a lead character. For Rajshri Deshpande, who plays both Shailaja and Shailesh, it was vital to be in Baapya, given the overall prejudice about trans identity and the conversations about the recent Transgender Persons Protection of Rights Amendment Bill.

“I have watched films on trans women but I don’t remember a film about a trans man, about what a woman goes through, how she wants to get out of her body, what the mindset of people is like,” Deshpande told Scroll. “I spoke to a few trans men and people from the community. When I realised that the story of Baapya was through a sensitive and sensible lens, I decided to be a part of it.”

Apart from appearing in films and series, among them...

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