Is Gazal Dhaliwal Bollywood’s Best New Writer?

Gazal Dhaliwal is a force to be reckoned with. I first watched her on TV during an episode of Satyameva Jayate that was tackling LGBTQ issues. She spoke about her transition from male to female and her family’s immense support. Since then, she has been taking Bollywood by storm as a writer, and her latest work Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, has already created buzz since the film’s trailer launched on December 27. Last year, I met her in person for the first time when I recorded an episode of my podcast Keeping it Queer with her. One of the main things that stands out about Gazal, is that she has a great sense of humour and is really warm to speak to. I’ve been a fan of her writing ever since I watched Lipstick Under My Burkha, for which she wrote the dialogues. So I sat her down to talk to her about her journey through Bollywood as a writer, her identity within it, and more.

VICE: As a trans woman, how has the journey been for you: From your move from Patiala to Mumbai, and now becoming a screenplay writer for a mainstream Bollywood film?
Gazal Dhaliwal: I have to say that my queer identity has had no role in my getting anywhere in the industry as such. I studied filmmaking in Bombay, but that was before transitioning. Once I came back to the city in 2009, I’ve had to struggle like anyone else trying to make it in the industry. I’ve gone door to door to various production houses and written hundreds and thousands of pages of scripts that never got made. While I may have gotten visibility through various media, that visibility has played no main part in getting work in Bollywood.

Would you share an experience of a script that was stuck in limbo before it got greenlit?
Let’s take Lipstick Under My Burkha for example. It was an extremely small budget film. Prakash Jha was producing it for Alankrita Shrivastava. Even though we didn’t have mainstream actors, we got good actors. We wrote the film in 2013 and after that it vanished and almost three years went by before it could get a release. It would have struggled even more if Ekta Kapoor (Balaji) hadn’t picked it up. That was a really really hard struggle for Alankrita and me. It’s happened thrice that I’ve worked on scripts for two years and producers have scrapped the films.

So in times like these, how do you keep yourself motivated? Does your fascination with films help?
It’s heartbreaking. I can’t even begin to explain. A script is like a baby, it’s part of you that you put into a script. It’s an entity by itself. But nobody other than me will ever know that entity until it becomes a film. Only then will others acknowledge it. A script is eventually meant to be watched. Those three scripts are still sitting in my computer. They are like babies who have never been born. I have even got into depression because of that. But thankfully I have a very solid net of friends who are there to support me. And luckily, I’ve never been out of work.

Bollywood has several writers struggling to get their films made. What would you tell them?
It might sound like a cliche, but instead of looking out constantly for work, look inside. Give yourself work and make sure you fulfil that task that you’ve given yourself; it could be weekly or monthly. You have to keep digging till one or two stories stick and you have to live with them and work on them. That’s the only way of doing it. People will give you work when you show them some work.

What are your thoughts on the Transgender Persons Bill 2018 ?
The most important need for a trans person is that of self-identification of their gender, but this Bill is going to entangle that under the weight of bureaucracy. Besides, there is still no talk of reservations in education and employment as stipulated by the 2014 Supreme Court judgment. I really hope the Rajya Sabha would listen to the transgender community’s voice and prevent this Bill from going through.

To fellow transpersons who are also figuring out their life through their struggles, what would you like to say?
I think it takes a huge amount of courage for a transperson to live their everyday lives. So I just want to laud and salute every transperson’s courage and spirit, even in the face of the unfair hand played with us by fate. There are so many inspiring transpersons in this country who haven’t had much but have lived such full lives. More power to this courage. May our voices never go mellow.

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