PORTRAYALS OF TRANSGENDER PEOPLE IN TAMIL MOVIES (2015-2024)

Movies are powerful because they help people understand the world around them. For a long time in Indian
films, transgender people were not shown in a fair or respectful way. They were sometimes used for comedy,
fear, or jokes. In Tamil cinema, this problem was very common. But between the years 2015 and 2024, things
started to change. Some new movies began to show transgender people as real human beings with emotions,
dreams, and struggles. This paper looks at four Tamil movies from this time: Aruvi (2017), Peranbu (2018),
Super Deluxe (2019), and Paava Kadhaigal (2020). By studying these films, we can see how transgender
characters are shown, what kind of stories they get, and how they are treated in the film world. The study found
that movies today are getting better at showing transgender lives honestly, but there are still problems. Some
films still show transgender people mainly through pain or sad events. Also, many transgender characters are
still played by actors who are not transgender. The paper ends by saying that Tamil cinema is improving but
must continue to include transgender voices and give them more meaningful roles