Transgender Actress To Star In Malayalam Film With Mammootty

Meet transgender model Anjali Ameer, who has been signed as Mammootty’s heroine in his next film, Peranbu, reports Deccan Chronicle. For the first time, a transgender  actress will be seen playing a lead role in an Indian movie.

Director Ram’s Peranbu is scripted to be a drama, and this Tamil flick has Malayalam superstar Mammootty playing the male lead.

While the 21-year-old Coimbatore model, Anjali will be one of the three female leads in her debut film, this is surely a breakthrough in Indian cinema where she became the first transgender model to star in a mainstream Malayalam film.

On Sunday, the actor posted a picture with Anjali on his Facebook page.

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An excited Anjali said, “I had been doing some TV shows -- mostly comedy shows -- when I had been offered a title role in a serial broadcast in a prominent Malayalam channel. After two days of shoot, they came to know about my identity. Although I had mentioned my identity to the production controller, who is my friend, the director was not informed about this. When they realised that I am a transsexual, they started avoiding me. At that time, I had talked about this in an interview given to a news channel. Mammukka suggested my name after watching this.”

Hailing from Calicut in Kerala, Anjali at age 20 underwent a sex-change surgery and became a woman.

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"After completing my class 10, I started trying to undergo this change. Initially, it wasn't acceptable for my family. So, I ran away from home. I lived with transgender communities in Coimbatore and Bengaluru in the next couple of years. It was a period of real personal struggle," she told India Times.

When transgender people are still facing discrimination in most walks of life, news like this would definitely send the right message across.

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Feature Image Credit: Deccan Chronicle

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