Filmmaker faces transgender fury after mass wedding event

Bhopal: A Bollywood filmmaker has landed himself in an embarrassing situation for “sponsoring” mass marriage of transgender members, the first of its kind event in the country, at Raipur in Chhattisgarh last week.

Suresh Sharma, whose movie Hansa Ek Sanyog, is set for an all-India release on April 12 this year, is under attack by the transgender community for not paying the money he had allegedly committed to them for promoting the film on the occasion of the mass marriage of third sex persons in Raipur on March 30.

“Mr Sharma had given us the commitment to shower the couples, whose marriages were conducted, with gifts in kind and cash. But he is yet to fulfil his commitment. The couples have held back their honeymoon programmes for this,” Raipur-based transgender community leader and social activist Vidya Rajput said.

Mr Sharma was, however, not available for his comment.

His movie revolves round a third gender person. Mr Sharma used the occasion of the recent mass wedding of transgender persons in Raipur to promote his film.

Vidya claimed that the transgender brides had borrowed money to buy jewelleries and other costumes for the occasion expecting that the film maker would be generous in presenting gifts in kind and cash to them.

“We expected that each transgender bride would be presented with a gift costing Rs 50,000 and cash of the same amount. Howev-er, we have received a total of Rs 2 lakh. The brides are at a loss as to how to share the paltry money among themselves,” Vidya said.