The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Gender Bender
Nepal’s first transgender model to walk the ramp at the forthcoming edition of Lakme Fashion Week
ANJALI Lama, 32, may be a little older than your average aspiring catwalk model, but in a roomful of runway aspirants she clearly stands out with her razor-sharp cheekbones, wiry frame and endless legs. At the modelling audition for Lakme Fashion Week’s (LFW) Summer/resort 2017 edition, she fits right in, wearing the de rigueur black mini dress and doing the catwalk with practised poise. And although she is pitted against an equally beautiful bevy of female competitors, it is probably one of those rare occasions that Lama, Nepal’s first transgender model, feels like she truly fits in.
But Lama’s story hasn’t always been about fitting in. For someone who discovered at a very young age that she was transgender and finally came out to her family and the world in 2005, her life since has been more about discovering her true identity, owning it and creating a niche for herself.
Born Nabin Waiba in Nuwakot, Nepal, it took years of being sniggered at and ridiculed for Lama to move away from her disapproving family and strike out on her own. “I decided early on to do and say what I think is right for me. Many people from our community continue to live double lives. But I’ve never tried to hide my identity. This is me,” IN FEBRUARY 2015, Indore-based Kripa Shankar Bishnoi received a call, asking him to train film star Aamir Khan in wrestling for his next movie. Taking it for a prank, the coach of the national women’s team hung up on the caller. A few days later, the call came again — this time with some more details thrown in, such as the title of the film, Dangal. In a week’s time, he was in Mumbai for a meeting with Khan, filmmaker Nitesh Tiwari and a dozen or so crew members.
“When I went there, the team had shortlisted some actors to play Geeta and Babita Phogat, and wanted me on board to train the actors in wrestling, and also choreograph the bouts. I had one condition: If I had to make it look genuine, I would also audition the girls,” he says. His audition, however, was nothing like the screen test that actors usually go through. He put them through the same screening routine he adopts for the selection of new wrestlers for the Indian team. All the girls had to undergo a battery of tests, which included endurance, explosive strength, flexibility, the ability to react and respond, and so on. “The idea was to turn the actors into wrestlers, and put them through the same gruelling routine that the wrestlers for Rio Olympics were following at the National Camp,” says Bishnoi, 40.
While Sanya Malhotra matched all the criteria, Fatima Sana Shaikh was short on explosive strength. That, Bishnoi believed, could be worked on. The two were selected to play Babita and Geeta Phogat, respectively. It took a month to pump up the fitness levels of the girls. After that, for the next six months, Bishnoi trained them in wrestling.
As in the film, Bishnoi brought on board a number of male and female wrestlers across the weight categories, from 30-120 kg, for the girls to practice techniques on. They were also taught how to fight Indian style, in akhadas that have loose mud for cushioning. “It was important, because acting as a wrestler would have come across as fake on screen to anyone watching the bouts closely,” he says. While the turning points in the wrestling bouts were choreographed along with stunt director Sham Kaushal, the fights leading to those were genuine. “The girls actually fought those bouts, which is why their instincts and emotions are noticeable in those scenes,” says the recipient of Arjuna Award, who has represented India in over 50 international-level wrestling competitions. Today, Bishnoi is flooded with calls from India and abroad, complimenting him for his work in Dangal.
Bishnoi’s own story bears some resemblance to the protagonists in the film. With an uncle much like Khan’s Phogat, Bishnoi was seven when he got dragged from his home in Madhya Pradesh’s Sun Khedi village to Indore. The days were spent at school and rigid training followed from afternoons till evenings. He would miss his mother and friends and cry every other day. “It wasn’t until I watched my own win against the champion from Iran in the sub-junior category at the age of 12 on Doordarshan that I took to the sport with all my heart. From that day on, till 2012, I was an active wrestler,” he says.
When asked about the villainous portrayal of the national coach in the film, Bishnoi says that the film is a fictionalised version of some real events but he understands the displeasure of PR Sondhi, the national coach to Geeta and Babita at the time when they won the Commonwealth medals. “I have been his student as well. He is a very nice man and someone who has supported women’s entry in the sport,” he says.
Bishnoi explains that Sondhi is a proponent of pehelwan Chandgi Ram, the wrestler who began the movement to introduce women in wrestling in 1997. “At that time, most of the fraternity was against the move. Wrestlers would say the sport is ‘Bajrang Bali’s khel’ and allowing women in the field would make it impure. But Chandgi Ram went against the tide, started an akhada and a hostel for women in Delhi, enrolled his own daughter to set an example. Mahavir Phogat and Sondhi are both from the same school of thought,” he says. Bishnoi has witnessed the period when girls entering an akhadas or playing a dangal would get pelted by stones by onlookers. Much, of course, has since changed. And Bishnoi believes that a film like Dangal will only help inspire more women to take up wrestling. “It’s true that women are no less than men. As a wrestler and coach, I can say this with confidence.”