Cinema has always gone hand-in-hand with a sense of community: whether it's bunking school to go watch a film with your squad or screaming at the theatre screen when Iron Man dies in Avengers: Endgame. Watching a film alone is surely enjoyable but watching it as a community is an unparalleled experience.
The LGBTQIA+ community, however, has famously been denied a mainstream space — in cinema and otherwise. Especially in the Southeast-Asian landscape, films have solely treated their transgender characters as punchlines or deranged antagonists.
With 21st century desi cinema barely scratching the surface of queer and trans representation, we've only now begun seeing people like us on the silver screen.