Zoya Akhtar-Ayesha Sood on ‘In Transit’: We wanted trans people to tell their own stories

The idea for “In Transit”, a four-part docu series about the lives of trans and non-binary individuals, was born out of the many stories filmmakers Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti came across while auditioning for a trans character in the second season of their critically-acclaimed series “Made in Heaven”.

Directed by Ayesha Sood and produced by Akhtar and Kagti through their banner Tiger Baby, “In Transit” is set to premiere on Prime Video on Friday.

“Made in Heaven” has been praised for its representation of LGBTQ individuals, first with a gay lead in Arjun Mathur’s wedding planner Karan and then by introducing a trans character, Meher, who was played by Trinetra Haldar Gummaraju, in season two.

Zoya said they “got crazy feedback from the LGBT community” through the show as the community felt represented in an authentic way.

“When we wrote a trans character, we realised we knew very little… So, we started interviewing people and the people that spoke to us were very honest and they shared a lot, including their dreams. Meher was a specific kind of character, so that story came out of these interviews.”

“We realised that this is something that we need to expand on in a different format. They need to tell the audience their own story and we pitched that to Amazon Prime who went for it in one call so we are lucky,” Akhtar told PTI in a virtual interview.

The filmmaker said they decided to rope in Sood to direct the series as they wanted someone who could shepherd the project in an authentic way, without adding any shock value to it.

Sood, a filmmaker, photographer and editor who runs the media company Jamun Collective, said when Akhtar and Kagti approached her with the idea, she was a little flummoxed as trans experience is a huge canvas.

“I was like, ‘How do you tell the story of trans people?’ Like women in India, the canvas is huge… There are so many diverse experiences of being a woman in India, likewise, being trans in India is our baseline setting and it is vast, unique and complex. How do we bring that out in the stories?”

“So, we talk about things that are universally moving to all of us, like identity, our place in the world, our relationships with families and finding love. These are universal things that move everybody,” Sood told PTI.

The team had a long period of research, and eventually found a way as well as a structure to tell these stories.

“The Indian idea of being trans is vast. So we wanted to get a broad range of stories and people from different contexts and we wanted to be uniquely rooted in India. These are real people from different walks of life who are expressing their trans-ness,” Sood said.

“It was also a matter of who could tell their stories to us. It’s not easy for everyone to be on camera… These are tough lives, so it was also about who could actually tell us these stories,” she added.

“In Transit” is the second project from the documentary slate that Akhtar and Kagti are planning to produce through their banner, following “Angry Young Men”, a cinematic exploration of iconic screenwriter duo Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan’s filmography.

A third, “Turtle Walker” by Taira Malaney, will chronicle the extraordinary journey of conservationist Satish Bhaskar.

Akhtar, known for films such as “Luck By Chance”, “Dil Dhadakne Do” and “Gully Boy”, said she loves documentaries as the format allows a filmmaker to explore different stories. There is also a lot of interest for documentaries in India now, she added.

“There’s a lot more exposure and I think people are interested in stories. Certain stories are good as short films, certain things lend themselves to eight hours of narrative. Certain things are good as features, and certain stories need to be told in their most authentic, true self,” Akhtar said.

Sood credited OTT platforms for nurturing the format.

“We now have a growing audience for documentaries. The platforms are entirely to be praised for this. They have brought documentaries into your living room and everybody is watching them. Along with it, the craft has also elevated.”

In “In Transit”, Sood brings in a lot of pop culture references to describe the trans experience.

The documentary explores the lives of nine individuals, including a classical musician from Bangalore, a school educator from Tripura and a corporate professional in Mumbai.

The director said these pop culture references show why representation matters, whether it is a film or a television serial like “Hum Paanch”.

“That’s what people consume and spend their time being inspired, watching and discussing. It wasn’t like I needed to get a Bollywood reference out here. It’s the world that the characters live in.”

“And those are the things that struck them when they were growing up, like the first time they saw themselves on screen, or the first time they felt something about a character or love or any such thing,” she said.