September 19, 2026 10:04 pm (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
‘No UPI above ₹2,000?’ Ghaziabad traders put up ‘cash only’ hoardings | Trump signs Russia sanctions bill: India faces fresh 100% tariff threat over Moscow oil | Caught using ChatGPT for exam answers, IIT Bombay student dies by suicide; students protest | Congress' Nandigram candidate arrested after Mamata's support amid TMC symbol row; Bengal bypoll gets chaotic | Gurugram murder shocker: Groom-to-be leaves sisters at Delhi restaurant to meet ex-colleague, found dead days later | Delhi horror: Teen allegedly gangraped, stabbed to death and dumped in field; dogs eat parts of body | TMC name, symbol frozen: EC tells rival factions to pick new identities ahead of Bengal bypolls | Married just 17 days ago: Hyderabad engineer mysteriously found dead at US home | ‘We will promote cash’: New UPI charge triggers trader backlash, Opposition protests | Gurugram biker crash: Main accused Kalyan Bainsla sent to police custody for 2 days

Now a Bengali film on male transgenders frequenting traffic signals

| | Feb 11, 2016, at 04:53 pm
Kolkata, Feb 11 (IBNS) Exploring the world of male transgenders frequenting road crossings of the city, young director Barshali Chatterjee's Bengali film Jenana stars Saswata Chatterjee, Priyanka Sarkar and Sampurna among others.

 "Jenana takes a sneak peek into the never-seen-before world of those men who join the transgender community for their livelihood as Somu become Sumona and likewise. The film revolves around the transgender community with an extensive research work for months," Barshali says about the film..

 Says Saswata, "Jenana is a tale of the flourishing 'industry' that exists at the traffic signals, the male community who change their social-sexual identity to eke out a living."

"May sound cliche but seriously I accepted the film's offer as I had never portrayed a role like this beforehand. And I mean it," Saswata says.

Barshali says, “This film aims to explore that relatively unfamiliar Kolkata where a man is joining the transgender community and that community is christened Jenanas. My film begins with Somu aka Sumona, a jenana, narrating his story to an aspiring young director Riya."

"We chose a public place - opposite Tollygunje metro station - for film's promotion since Jenana talks about the street fighters who are spurned by society and we see countless of such Jenanas, with heavily made up faces, across important public thoroughfares," the young, spunky director says.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.