Seema Biswas goes transsexual

After portraying Phoolan Devi in Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen, Seema Biswasbecomes the first Indian actress to play a transsexual in Indiancinema.
She will be essaying the character of a transgender inQueens! Dance of Destiny. The character is inspired by Manvendra Singh Gohil,who belongs to the royal family of Rajpipla.
Talking about thecharacter, director David Atkin says, “Manvendra Singh Gohil is a strongname in the industry.
While I was writing the character, he was theonly one I could relate to Seema Biswas’s role. Seemaji is a brilliantactress and I had complete faith that she would do justice to therole.”
Seema Biswas, on her way to Sri Lanka to shoot for DeepaMehta’s film, admitted it was a tough job to play the role. She said,“Though I agreed to play the role, it was not easy. I had to sit throughtwo hours of make-up just to look like a transsexual.”
Talkingabout her character she says, “I play the role of Guru amma, who is likethe head of a group of transsexuals.
The character is very similar tothat of Manvendra Singh, who had to go through a lot in life since he was notlike the rest of his family”.
The film incidentally starstranssexual Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, who attained fame when she made anappearance on Salman Khan’s TV show Dus Ka Dum.