In October last year, we exclusively reported that Ankur Bhatia was roped in to play a key role in actor Sushmita Sen’s upcoming web series titled Taali. It will see her playing the lead role, that of transgender activist Gauri Sawant. Her first look from the web series has already generated a generous buzz. It marks Ankur and Sushmita’s second on-screen collaboration after the International Emmy Award nominated web series Aarya, where they played siblings.
In an exclusive chat with News18, Ankur shares his excitement about reuniting with the former Miss Universe and says, “It’s a delight to work with Sushmita Sen. Taali is a very different space in terms of its and our characters. So, it was like a fresh start on something new.”
While Bollywood has embraced gay characters and their representation, it’s a still long way before transgender roles are accepted and written with grit and gumption. Hailing Sushmita’s choice, Ankur lauds her for blazing the trail and taking up a role of a trans-person in Taali. “Hats off to her for taking up such a challenging role! [I’ve] huge respect for her as I don’t think a lot of people will have the courage to play this role and she has killed it as Gauri Sawant,” he says.
Does he think it will help set a precedent and nudge filmmakers to sketch more trans characters for their films and shows? “It will definitely change the way you look and differentiate (if you do) yourself from transgender persons. It’s about time such content should come out, so that people develop awareness and change their outlook and become progressive. Personally, there were so many things I was unaware of before I read the script of Taali. I’m really looking forward for it to come out.”
While details around his character was kept under wraps, the Zanjeer (2013) and Crackdown (2020) actor will essay a homosexual man named Navin in Taali. However, he points out that playing a character like that was to not ‘make a statement’. So, was there any challenge involved while approaching the part? “It was similar to how I would approach any other character. A bigger challenge was that I had just completed filming a movie where I play a ruthless serial killer and I had to jump onto Taali where I play this absolutely lovable character who happens to be gay. I worked closely with my director Ravi Jadhav to develop an approach and characteristics for Navin, keeping the sensitives in mind. I was super excited to play Navin,” he states.
Ankur agrees that the onscreen representation of the queer community has gone through a positive change in the Hindi film industry in the last few years. Talking about it, he says, “Since cinema is evolving, we are constantly evolving and so has the portrayal of homosexuality. It’s about time we stop treating homosexuality as a taboo.” Does he have a favourite queer character? “There are lot of actors who have recently played gay characters and they are absolutely at their best, be it Ayushmann Khurrana and Jitendra Kumar in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (2020) or Rajkummar Rao in Badhaai Do (2022),” shares Ankur, who will also be seen in actor Shahid Kapoor’s Bloody Daddy soon.
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