Not all colours of the rainbow: How this new short film dives into the life of the LGBTQIA+ community, and more

Tara is the love story of a dalit transwoman

Often, the intersections that make a person, doesn't fit into our version of reality. Tara, a 20-minute fictional film, beautifully puts across the conundrum of which part of ourselves is palatable to our nearest and dearest, even a lover.

The protagonist of the movie, Tara, is a transwoman who falls in love with a heterosexual man. Tara is tapped into her female sensuality, and so when she meets Aman, the frontman of the band that is playing at a party, their chemistry is palpable.

Writer-director Ashutosh S Shankar, who is a psychology graduate and spends his time between Mumbai and Pune, is a queer Dalit and explains that the story came out from the conversations of between his trans friend in Pune and him. "She and I kept talking about how we are forced to manoeuvre our way around our identities," he says. The 26-year-old was more inclined to movies since his childhood.

"I tried my hand at filmmaking. I did a couple of internships, I even worked at a production houses and took up director's assistant gigs for a couple of years. At the same time, I was writing a bunch of scripts, getting a certain worldview of the politics, coming from the community. But I was also trying to make sense of these identities. I kept asking myself ‘How do I make sense of this?'" he adds.

One of the things that really stood out to us was that when Tara takes Aman back to her place she asks him to wait outside the door for two minutes. When she finally opens the door to let him in there is a wall that seems to be missing a frame, only the rectangle imprint remains. Most might miss it, but for those who know, know. That comes from a personal experience of Shankar's, he tells us.

"Whenever my father's colleagues would come home, we would hide Babasaheb's portrait and it was after many years when we as a family decided that we are no longer going to do this anymore," he explains. The expression on Tara is one of guilt and helplessness as she puts back the frame on the wall after Aman leaves.

Ashutosh S Shankar

As we see Tara fall in love, we also see her fear developing - the fear of being found out - a fear that many from the Dalit community suffer from while navigating the world. "Right now am I in a position that I can say who I am, but many of us can't because there are real life consequences that have to do with you earning a living if you come and say you are a Dalit," he says.

The movie is also produced by Zena Sagar, who herself is a transwoman, and has been one of the agitators leading the Against Trans Bill Campaign against the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026 which came to effect in March. "When we began making the movie a year ago, the Transgender Act was not there and now the release of the film is even more vital. People like Zena and hundreds of trans persons have been at the receiving end of transphobia and have been completely stripped of their autonomy," he says.

Currently, the film has been featured at film festivals, and the producers and Shankar are trying to find a limited release or even an OTT platform, but it has been difficult. "A theatre release is difficult for short films because of the duration so we are trying for some kind of OTT release, but the terms are very unfair," he says. "One OTT platform offered us only Rs 40,000 which is not even a fraction of what it took us to make the movie to make with the additional rider that we cannot show the movies at any festivals. While it works for many, I am holding out for something better," he adds.

We hope Shankar finds someone because otherwise how will you know what happened between Aman and Tara? Our lips are sealed.