Muhafiz, an 18-minute short by Pradipta Ray addresses transphobia and the tricky business of coming out

It’s 2002 Gujarat. Samir, a 30-year-old queer person, is cruising in a park. He is having friendly banter with a Hijra friend when he finds someone hiding behind the bushes. Samir notes that this man’s face bears an imprint of an imminent, life-threatening fear. His body is breakable, he reckons, maybe more than his, for he is Muslim. This is the premise of Muhafiz (The Protector), an 18-minute short movie directed by trans filmmaker, animator, educationist, and artist Pradipta Ray. In February, Muhafiz was selected for premiering at the BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festiva l, and at the recently concluded 13th KASHISH: Mumbai International Queer Film Festival , where it won awards in two categories—Best Narrative Short and Best Screenplay. In multiple conversations with Firstpost, the director, one of the producers—Arfi Lamba, and the two main leads—Akash Sinha and Rishabh Dhingra—speak about how and why this movie was made, what it means to them, and how to make sense of Bollywood piggy-banking on queer narratives. Ideation, production, and execution “My friend and then flatmate (on whom Samir’s character is based) actually saved a Kashmiri boy’s life in 2002 riots,” Pradipta says. “The story stayed with me ever since. I had a strong feeling that this incident would make a wonderful movie.” Addressing  transphobia, and the trickiness of coming out for people living a dual life, Pradipta and Ashutosh Pathak, who co-wrote the screenplay with her, “rearranged the action that took place during the incident and dramatized it for the screen.” Like all her projects, for this movie, too, she was looking out for “good actors or performers, irrespective of their sexual orientation. Because it’s all about the depiction of right emotions in the right possible manner.” She had initially zeroed down on casting her friend (real-life Samir), but as “it was too long a commitment for him, it didn’t materialise. However, he did do a cameo for us.” But making a queer-themed movie comes with its own challenges. Pradipta, who didn’t want to compromise on the visuality and depiction of this nuanced story, pooled resources from everywhere. While some friends helped her raise money, two London-based producers Kaushik Ray and Neeraj Churi came out in support, too, and her friends Arfi Lamba and Katharina Suckale at Bombay Berlin Film Productions (BBFP) co-produced and executed the project. Though there’s “no ecosystem for independent experiments in India, especially when it comes to queer content,” Pradipta, who is currently developing two queer-themed concepts—a feature-length film and a web series—and “has a dream to remake RK Banner’s Prem Rog with a cis-gender bisexual man and a transwoman” is hopeful about the kind of cinema that is being produced and made nowadays. Arfi, who co-founded BBFP with Katharina and has also produced the multi-award-winning queer-themed feature Loev (2015), “knew about the idea, but started actively working on it with Ray in late 2019.” “Shooting on actual locations was extremely challenging,” Arfi says, “because right permissions couldn’t be secured at the right time.” He further adds that “in early 2020, when we did get permissions to shoot in Gujarat, the then US president Trump was visiting, so all permissions were revoked. At one point, we wondered if this movie will ever be made!” The team shot the entire movie between initial coronavirus-induced lockdowns in a matter of three days. Thanks to their art and production designer Gauri Tiwari, real-life settings were re-created in a studio, but the team constantly worried about what would happen if another lockdown were announced. Getting it right Akash Sinha, who plays Samir in the movie, convincingly essays the character whose life oscillates between being straight and queer, depending on the circumstances and motivations involved. Though it was relatively easier for him to work on this character as he could look up to the real-life person for anything, eventually he ended up convincing Pradipta to let him “find the Samir within himself—to explore my own femininity.” He informs me that he did have reference materials and video recordings that Pradipta shared, but half the job was done when the latter brought Samir’s attire. “I clean-shaved, wore those clothes, and saw myself change. I was stunned,” Akash says. “I wasn’t that much aware of the [LGBTQIA+] community. My knowledge was limited to portrayals in movies and a few people whom I know,” he adds. In that sense, Akash feels that “this film was so important for me, as it made me more sensitive and aware about the community. Previously, I was distant. Now I have access to their real-life situation, their emotional graph, and much more. I was also touched by meeting people at KASHISH. The love they showered at us and how happy they were by this labour of love of ours. When a few people asked me, ‘Are you gay?’ I said no, I am not. I didn’t get offended; I took it as a compliment, as this meant that I did well as an actor.” The actor would soon be seen with Ayushmann Khurrana in Anubhuti Kashyap-directed feature Doctor G, Barah by Barah by Gaurav Madan, and yet another short on 2002 Gujarat riots Gudgudi, directed by Adhiroop Basu. While Akash’s principal job was to be fluid and pick up nuances of a Hijra, Rishabh Dhingra left gym to maintain an appropriate body for his character (Rafiq) and learned Kashmiri accent from a few recordings that Pradipta provided. He also talked to his Kashmiri friend (Harris) for over a month and tried emulating his accent. “I actually went for the naked man’s role,” Rishabh tells me. “But when Pradipta narrated the whole script, I was drawn to Rafiq’s character. I knew it was one of the primary roles. I loved it not only because of that, but because I wanted to try something different. If you must have noticed, I don’t have many dialogues—and that’s the fun part. Besides the extremely crucial monologue, I had to rely on nothing but my expressions. Mostly my eyes. They’re big and I used them to the fullest,” he adds. Rishabh says that the brief shared by Pradipta (“keep it natural and underplay it”) was loud and clear, and echoed in his mind when he was playing Rafiq. And he did exactly that. The way he manipulates Samir, letting him know about his closetedness and vulnerability, into saving his own life while being meek and intrepid leaves a strong impression about his acting capabilities. His tense body during the climax scene also exuded an atmosphere of fear. An LGBTQIA+ ally, Rishabh also adds that because his mother has several trans friends, who “used to come and have tea with them when I was a kid and still continue to do so,” he never saw being queer differently. He will be seen in a web series by Natak Pictures, and his feature-length film ‘W.  House’ will be released soon. Saurabh Sharma (He/They) is a Delhi-based queer writer and freelance journalist. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.