Filmmaker Faraz Arif Ansari On His Queer Acting Workshop That's A Love Letter To A Hateful World

When you think of having more queer representation in the entertainment industry, more often than not, the first thought that comes to mind is to feature more queer actors in mainstream movies and series. To write more (and diverse) characters from the community, and write them as well-fleshed-out human beings who are not just a poster child for their sexuality. To show queer stories that go beyond the all-too-familiar tropes of the gay best friend, the martyred lovers or the Hayes Code-era queer-coded villains.

For independent queer filmmaker Faraz Arif Ansari, representation goes way beyond writing a queer character on screen. He has portrayed the community and their experiences for almost a decade now, his stories earning international acclaim: Sisak, India’s first silent film featuring a queer love story went on to win almost sixty international awards. His 2021 short film, Sheer Qorma, qualified for the BAFTAs. His first feature film, Bun Tikki, premiered at the 36th Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Films, however, are much more than just the characters you see on screen. True representation, argues Ansari, is when people from the community can make their own films, entirely by themselves. Which was how he came up with the idea of TRANSaction: a free, recurring acting and filmmaking workshop for trans and queer performers, to empower them to tell their own stories.

The fifth edition of TRANSaction took place from June 12-14 at The LaLiT Mumbai, after having run successful editions across Bangalore, Delhi, Jaipur and many more cities. We speak to the man behind TRANSaction on the workshop, dispelling stigmas about the community, and empowering queer artistes in an increasingly divisive world.

If you could just explain in your own words what you do with TRANSaction?

Ansari: I started TRANSaction in the year 2019 because I felt that, being an openly queer, non-binary filmmaker, one always talks about representation, we talk about having queer actors and trans actors in front of the camera, but we only talk about it at panels and discussions. Nobody's really putting in the work to actually put queer and trans actors in front of the camera. I felt that there was a hole in representation that had to be filled. I decided to make it my responsibility to create a platform where we host free acting workshops.

I feel like a lot of people from the community are also financially challenged, but it does not mean that they should not be able to dream of becoming actors. So I wanted to create free acting workshops for them and I wanted to bring people from the film fraternity, from the media industry to them rather than the queer community going to them, because I think people always expect queer people to do all the work.

I wanted to change that balance. I said, we will be here and I will get my friends, allies of the community from the film industry to you. We'll get them to mentor you, to train you, we get them to teach you and hopefully that will bring opportunities.

We started this in 2019. This is our fifth edition. But the idea has always been to take TRANSaction across India. We do it in collaboration with the Keshav Suri Foundation and The Lalit group of hotels. We've done it in Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore, Jaipur and Chandigarh till now. We want to take it to Srinagar, Goa and other places as well. It's a three-day workshop. We had mentors like Pooja Bhatt, Shweta Tripathi, Nushrat Bharucha, Taaha Shah, Tess Joseph and Shikha Talsania.

These sessions are beyond acting also. Of course the focus is acting, but it's also theatre, it's also how to do auditions, what is the process of auditioning. We also had a dance session for them. In our Calcutta edition that we did earlier this year, we also had influencers come in and teach the participants how to use social media to create content as individuals.

What inspired you to focus on training the community instead of writing more queer characters or making more films with queer characters?

Ansari: I do write queer characters. I do make films focused on queer people. I have cast three people from TRANSaction in my films earlier, not just in front of the camera but also behind the camera. In my film Bun Tikki that is going to release soon, I had queer representation and trans representation behind the camera in my team as well. I feel that balance is essential and necessary.

But just because I am a queer filmmaker, the responsibility to cast queer people does not only lie on me; it is with everyone. I want the community to have more work and work with everyone. They should work with the biggest production houses in the country, in the world, hopefully.

The idea is to break the understanding that a queer person can only play queer roles or a trans person can only play trans roles. I want to change that. Like in Sheer Qorma, my film, I actually had a trans actor play a cisgendered woman. It's about pushing the envelope as much as can and taking away the stigma attached to the queer community when it comes to representation, so that the next time when someone is writing a queer character or when someone is casting a trans actor, they should know that there are this wonderful set of people, not only very passionate, but also equally talented. They always boil it down to saying, "Yes, this person is trans, but do they have the talent?"

Well, now they have the talent because we've been training them.

Removing stigma also require creating awareness among the straight community. How do you bring about this change in the industry?

Ansari: I feel the way to generate awareness begins by doing everything openly in the mainstream and by talking about it. Most mentors who came for TRANSaction identify as allies. When people like Nushrat Bharucha, Taaha Shah, Shweta Tripathi, Pooja Bhatt and Tess Joseph collaborate with us, it creates a ripple across the mainstream. It creates awareness, it brings visibility to the work that I have been doing with TRANSaction, and it puts a massive spotlight on this initiative and everyone attached with it. I always try and attach people who are aligned with what we do and who work in the mainstream as well, to create a bridge between this side and that side.

Cities like Bombay and Kolkata have very established film industries of their own. How do you approach workshops in cities that don't have these industries?

Ansari: Yes, so it depends. The mentors depend on where we are going next. Last time when we hosted in Bangalore, we had very established theatre actors who came in and hosted acting sessions for us. We also had Prasad Bidappa, who runs one of India's leading model management agencies, who came in and trained the participants on hopefully making a career as models. Four of them even got campaigns after that.

One of them, Radhresh, even walked three fashion shows after TRANSaction with Prasad's support.One participant even walked three fashion shows after TRANSaction. In Delhi, people like Ishwak Singh and Charu Shankar have supported the initiative. So we always collaborate with local talent, local resources, to come forward and be a part of TRANSaction.

What does it mean to host these workshops at a time when the world as a whole is increasingly conservative and hateful?

Ansari: I was raised on love and I only understand what love means. And I understand the power that love holds within itself. I feel the more hate rises, the more love we have to put back into the system so that it overrides hate.

TRANSaction is that love letter to hate. It is my love letter to this world that needs empathy and kindness to remind everyone what it means to be human. That we are not different from each other.

And when you're hosting, like in the Bombay edition that ended recently, we had 50 participants come from different parts of the country to attend the Bombay edition.

It shows how important it is to keep creating safe spaces. Because, like you very rightly said, the world outside is getting volatile. The world outside is getting hateful. So then what do you do? You create more spaces of love, of safety. You create more places that are inclusive.

That's how we stand up to hate, by creating more opportunities.

And if I can host TRANSaction, I hope people who are reading this get inspired to do something else in this life to create those safe spaces. That is the only way we'll be able to eventually make love win.

Everyone talks about "love wins, love wins, love wins." How do you make love win?

You have to put in the work.

What next for TRANSaction?

Ansari: I want to add a whole different tangent to TRANSaction. I also want to start hosting film writing and filmmaking workshops along with it. I want to train participants to write their own films and shoot their own films.

Because I feel that that is somewhere one often gets stuck. You have the talent, you know how to act, but you don't know what to do with it. Nobody is casting you, nobody is making these films.

I feel true empowerment is when you're like, "This is what I want to do and I will do this." I feel if these participants can write their own short films or whatever content they want to create - we're living in a content-driven era. Content for 30 seconds also can get millions of views and create revenues for these participants. So why not train them into it?

I am a person of today. I would like to live in the present. And in the present, I see around me and I learn from it. And what I learn is something that I would also want to share with all the participants.

Eventually, that is the next step for TRANSaction: I want to train the participants in writing their own scripts and then training them also to make their scripts come to life.The next step for TRANSaction is to train participants in writing their own scripts and then making those scripts come to life: Be it on a small camera, be it on a phone, however they want to do it. Or maybe as a stand-up piece, maybe as a theatre piece.

Any message for aspiring filmmakers from the community?

Ansari: I don't come from a film family. As far as I know, nobody in my bloodline has ever worked in films. I know my grandmother used to do some theatre back in the day, but that's about it. Nobody else is even closely associated with the arts. I think I'm the first in my bloodline to do this.

I always think about what message I would want to give myself when I was starting out: don't give up. If opportunities don't exist, create those opportunities for yourself. I know it's a very simple thing to say, but it's also a very powerful thing to do.

If nobody is writing those films for you, write those films. If nobody is making those films for you, make those films. If one person has something in their hand and there's another person who has a camera, there will be another person who will have the mic. There will be another person who will probably have a wonderful location. There will be another person who will be like, "Hey, I can act." Create that space and create that opportunity for yourself.

When I made Sisak independently, I sold my car and made my first short film. Of course, I had a car to sell. That also comes from privilege, which I want to address.

But even if you don't have a car to sell, if you have your heart in place and if you believe in what you have written, I am sure if you try, you will find the right energies and the right people who you can hold hands with and create something that will be beautiful and wonderful and that can hopefully change the world that we live in by bringing in more love.