For decades now, popular culture in India has portrayed the transgender community as either scary and villainous or comic relief for a largely cisgender heterosexual audience. Over the years, there has been a gradual shift in how the community has been portrayed.
“All of this has not happened because of policies but persistence of people,” says Zainab Patel, a transgender woman who was recently appointed as the chief of diversity and inclusion at Pernod Ricard India.