How Bengaluru’s transwomen are reclaiming the city, one click at a time

‘Kathegala Kanive’ (Valley of Stories), a short documentary directed by Vikas Badiger, is making its international premiere this month at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne

When mural artist Shanthi Muniswamy was handed a digital camera, the one image she really wanted to capture was that of a bougainvillea, resplendent in the sunrise. For a ‘90s child like her, the flower held the charm, innocence and nostalgia of a bygone Bengaluru.  

“I live in Marathahalli and go for a walk every morning on the bridge, which boasts of a gorgeous bougainvillea plant. But right behind it, you can see a skyscraper which is a recent addition and anachronistic to the 90s. So, I woke up at 5 am and waited for the right light to shoot the photo, with a tight focus on the flower and the skyscraper silhouetted in the background,” says Shanthi. 

The journey to many such photographs shot by Shanthi and other transgender artists of the Aravani Art Project finds a place in  Kathegala Kanive (Valley of Stories), a documentary directed by Vikas Badiger. The 30-minute film is making its international premiere this month at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Previously, it had bagged the best documentary award at the Madras Independent Film festival. 

The Aravani Art Project, a transwomen and cis-women led art collective, was founded by Poornima Sukumar to address the discrimination faced by the LGBTQIA+ community and create safe spaces for them through art. As part of their continued attempt to reclaim public spaces, Aravani collaborated with Kanike Studios on a photography project that was funded by a grant from the India Foundation for The Arts. 

It is this process that Vikas documents with measured restraint, never letting his camera overshadow the ones in the hands of the women — a very conscious decision, he says. 

“I wanted to be as authentic as possible without taking away from the story they want to tell. So even before I switched on the camera, I’d ask which angle they preferred or what they wanted to share that day before shooting,” he says.  

This was not the first time the women were interacting with Vikas, though. They knew him from an earlier photo series he had done on them for Faces of Bengaluru, Vikas’ Instagram page that profiles people from the city.