Kolkata girl
Naireeta Dasgupta
is on cloud nine and why not? The talented young filmmaker’s Hindi short ‘Night Queen’ is receiving praise across the nation.
The 35-minute long short film, starring popular actors
Sheeba Chaddha and
Vipin Sharma in the lead, is the story of a 48-year-old woman from Lucknow living in the body of a man.
“Repressed, assaulted as a young adult, Lakshmi grows up to be fearful of her individuality, her sexuality and her desires. Until one day the perfect family man decides to stun his wife, his old mother and his college-going daughter and comes out to them. It is a story of courage, self-love and breaking glass ceilings,” shared an excited
Naireeta
while speaking about her short film’s storyline.
She further adds that it is common knowledge that the
Transgender population has struggled with discrimination and acceptance right from their childhood. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. They continue to be at the receiving end of harassment and gendered violence throughout their lives.
“I had read about it, been deeply affected and had started researching on it around 2017. Along the way, I had the opportunity to meet several people from the community whose stories would move me to tears. That’s when the idea of Night Queen started germinating. I had shared it with
Vipin
Sharma, who plays the character of Lakshmi in the film and he was extremely interested in collaborating with me on the film. He in fact pushed me to pursue it. I then started working on the script with Saurabh Kabra, also the producer of the film,” recalls the filmmaker while speaking about the inception of such an emotionally-drenched short.
Naireeta says it was no less than a miracle making the film. “It went over budget by a huge margin. Despite the tribulations, my producer and co-writer went along and shared the faith that Vipin had shown in the story since its inception. One thing led to another and in a matter of months we had the best possible technicians and actors supporting us and making the film their own,” shared the director who has previously directed two critically acclaimed shorts ‘Rasiya’ and ‘Marasim’.
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