Real transgender people were relatively simple to persuade to appear in Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s film Haddi.
The ‘Haddi’ movie, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqi, has 300 real transgender people to ensure accurate representation.
The film is being directed by debut producers Raadhika Nanda and Sanjay Saha. The former describes the search for 300 transgender people for the movie as “adventurous.”
Nawazuddin Siddiqui said: “The process was very adventurous and hard at the same time. It was not very difficult to convince them as we were also learning about their life experiences and making them a part of the film. We had a great time learning tons of things from them, including how their life and world are very different from ours.”
One transgender woman, Renuka, assisted the producers with their research for the movie.
Sanjay said: “She helped us learn about their community and their upbringing, along with the challenges faced by them from childhood to their day-to-day life. She also made us visit many people from the community which helped us write the script and get a better understanding of their life. She had brought some of her friends from the community to Nawaz so that he could get into the character and deeply understand their life.”
“I’m glad how Nawaz has spent a lot of time with them and making sure he truly understands what they go through.”
Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Haddi production crew filmed with transgender persons in Delhi. Sanjay gives Renuka the credit for making Haddi more accurate in its portrayal of transgender people.
“Renuka has helped us through the entire medical process too, including how the operation happens and what they have to go through post-operation. The writers sat with the transgender people to have a fair understanding of where they live, where they get treated, and what they do in daily lives, and followed their lifestyle which helped us a lot to make Haddi a truth-based film on them since Nawaz is playing a transgender,” he said.
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