As of July 1, 2025, we are still seeking additional chapters for The Handbook of Indian Trans Cinema: Film, Television, and Web Series to complement the 50+ confirmed chapters. Proposals are due July 1, 2025.

While most chapters examine Indian cinema with clearly transgender characters, we also welcome chapters for the handbook’s first theme, “Transing Cinema with No Transgender Characters,” showing how trans theories provoke new interpretations of film and television that don’t explicitly address transgender topics. For example, Dr. Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi’s chapter “Transing the Lens in Hindi Cinema” studies the following films:

• In Sadma (1983), trans theories of temporality offer a novel interpretation of this film about a character whose amnesia provides an escape from womanhood by regressing into childhood, challenging cisnormative notions of linear time.
• Paa (2009) provides insights into gender and aging through trans ontologies, showing how a child faced with premature aging due to a medical problem has bodily and social experiences reminiscent of gender dysphoria.  
• Although the central character of Chameli (2003) isn’t explicitly identified as transgender, her depiction as a savvy, feminine survivor who is resilient in the face of peril elicits images of hijras.

All chapters must engage both trans theory and film theory, and this is even more essential in chapters that explore cinema without explicitly transgender characters.

We seek a diverse group of contributors from countries around the world.

We especially welcome additional chapters on the following 18 themes:

Theme 1. Transing Cinema with No Transgender Characters

• Chapter 1. “Transing the Lens in Hindi Cinema: Reading Gender Dysphoria, Disidentification, and Desire,” Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi
• Chapter 2. “Transgressive Sovereignty: Gender Performativity, Female Masculinity, and Trans Aesthetics in Manikarnika,” Sukanya Saha

Theme 2. Historical Cinema

• Chapter 3. “Cinematic Representation of Eunuchs in Medieval Royal Courts,” Anup Shekhar Chakraborty and Praggnaparamita Biswas 
• Chapter 4. “Transgender Representation during the 1947 Partition in Hindi Cinema,” Nidhi Shrivastava
• Chapter 5. “India’s First Film Heroine, Trans Cultural Traditions, and Films,” Manisha Prakash

Theme 3. Comedy

• Chapter 6. “Comic Disruptions and Gender Play: Cross-Dressing, Laughter, and the Trans Possibility in Indian Cinema,” Darshana Chakrabarty
• Chapter 7. “Between Satire and Selfhood: Trans Narratives in Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Taali, and Paatal Lok,” Preeti Sharma
• Chapter 8. “Agency and Cisnormative Laugh: Contextualizing Power, Subversion, and Inclusion in Sadak, Shabnam Mausi, and Pati, Patni aur Panga,” Saba Zahoor

Theme 4. Horror

• Chapter 9. “Monstrous Femininity: Reading the Transgender Specter in Hindi Horror-Thrillers,” Abhiruchi Ranjan
• Chapter 10. “Dressed to Kill: Transgression and Terror in Murder 2,” Akanksha Yadav and Shabham Pathak
• Chapter 11. “Gothic Trans in Indian Cinema,” Ananya Chatterjee and Nisarga Bhattacharjee

Theme 5. Crime Drama

• Chapter 12. “Transgender Narratives, Crime, and Televised Justice: A Critical Study of the Selected Episodes of Savdhaan India,” Rachana Pandey
• Chapter 13. “(Trans)forming Noir: Kukoo's Paradoxical Role in Sacred Games,” Kulvinder Arora
• Chapter 14. “The Politics of Casting in the Crime Drama Gangubai Kathiawadi,” Shruti Ghosh and B. R. Alamelu

Theme 6. Biopics

• Chapter 15. “Transcending Boundaries: Embodied Agency and Narrative Disruption in the Odia Biopic T,” Debasish Mishra and Swati Shatavisha
• Chapter 16. “Electing the Other: Reimagining the Political Hijra in Shabnam Mausi (2005),” Juhi Singh, Shubham Pathak, and Swasti Mishra
• Chapter 17. “Queering the Narrative: Taali as a Site of Gender Disruption and Activism,” Sourav Das and Jaipal

Theme 7. Ethnographic Field Studies

• Chapter 18. “Transgender Identity and Popular Cultural Representation: A Digital Ethnography of the the Web Series Taali and Its Reception,” Deepika
• Chapter 19. “The Home as a Queer Space in the Lives of Trans Women,” Rincy Daniel and Sreejith Kadaiyakkol

Theme 8. Documentaries

• Chapter 20. “The Indian Documentary Gaze: A Study of Trans Lives in Select Indian Documentaries,” Nazrana Haque and Nasmeem Farhin Akhtar
• Chapter 21. “Visibilities In Transit: Studying Trans Mobilities and Intimacies via a Contemporary Indian Docu-Series,” Sukriti Bhukkal
• Chapter 22. “Feminine Excesses: Camp Performativity in Documentaries as an Exploration of Trans Identity,” Sagnika Chanda
• Chapter 23. “Crafting Exit Scapes: Reimagining Kashmiri Trans Identities in Trans Kashmir,” Saloni Walia and Varsha Singh
• Chapter 24. “Navigating Transphobia: Exit Scapes and Self-Expression in South Indian Transgender Documentaries,” Nibu Thomson and Poorna Pushkala A
• Chapter 25. “Wrong Body, Right Spirit: Visualizing Trans Athleticism in the Indian Sports Documentary I am Bonnie,” Bibhudatta Dash and Shreya Rathour

Theme 9. Transecology

• Chapter 26. “Between Forest and Flesh: A Transecological Reading of Babli by Night,” Anee Bhattacharyya
• Chapter 27. “Mesh-ed Identity: A Transecological Analysis of Santosh Sivan’s Navarasa,” Susan Deborah Selvaraj

Theme 10. Myth

• Chapter 28. “Desire on Screen in Bengali Cinema,” Nasmeem F. Akhtar
• Chapter 29. “Desire, Devotion, and Trans Kinship in Bengali Cinema: Nagarkirtan (2019),” Sohini Datta and Himashree Patowary
• Chapter 30. “Wrath and Redemption: Trans Embodiment and Vigilante Justice in Arddhanaari (2016),” Anurag Borah

Theme 11. Gender Performativity

• Chapter 31. “Playing Trans: Gender Performativity and Masquerade in Hindi Cinema,” Gunjan Gupta and Nayana George
• Chapter 32. “Dysphoria, Performativity, and the Politics of Belonging: Love, Intra-Community Exclusion, and Posthumous Solidarity in Kaushik Ganguly’s Nagarkirtan,” Debapriya Goswami
• Chapter 33. “Whispers of Defiance: Queer Embodiment and Gender Nonconformity in Memories in March,” Manasi Sinha and Pratyush Bibhakar
• Chapter 34. “Reconceptualizing ‘Nari Bhav’: Critiquing the Politics of Androgynous Semiotics, Perverse Mimesis, and Transcorporeal Signification in Kaushik Ganguly’s Arekti Premer Golpo and Raja Sen’s Maya Mridanga,” Amar Chakrabortty

Theme 12. Visibility

• Chapter 35. “Negotiating Marginality: Trans Subjectivity, Queer Kinship, and the Politics of Visibility in Fireflies/Jonaki Porua,” Parvin Sultana
• Chapter 36. “Trans Formations: The Transgender Gaze and Class Privilege in the Indian Web Series Made in Heaven,” Puja Raj
• Chapter 37. “Between Spectacle and Subject: Trans Representations in Indian Television through Shakti: Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki,” Preeti Sharma

Theme 13. Motherhood

• Chapter 38. “Questioning Normative Motherhood: The Representation of Trans Parenting in Bollywood,” Sushreed Routray and Rashmi Gaur
• Chapter 39. “Maternal Agency and Trans Affirmation in Contemporary Indian Short Films,” Apoorva Uniyal and Monika Gupta

Theme 14. Transmasculinity

• Chapter 40. “Transmasculinity and Malayalam Film: The Twin Effects of Transition and Demonetisation,” M.A. Miller
• Chapter 41. “Unlovable or Unseen? Taboos around Trans Male Identity and Intimacy in the Film Safed,” Akanksha Singh and Rajiv Pratap Singh

Theme 15. Trans Foucault

• Chapter 42. “The Trans Body in the Public Gaze: Michel Foucault’s Discourse Theory and Transgender Subjectivity in Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui,” Vidya Hariharan
• Chapter 43. “Gender, Space, and Survival: Daayraa and the Evolution of Trans Narratives in Indian Cinema,” Somsuvra Midya
• Chapter 44. “Resisting Erasure: Transgender Agency, Intersectionality, and the Politics of Visibility in The Missing Colors and Atharyam,” Anupama A. P.

Theme 16. Time and Space

• Chapter 45. “Mapping Trans Temporalities in Rajasthan's Cinematic Deserts,” Sohini Datta and Himashree Patowary
• Chapter 46. “Safety as a Genre: Chronotopes of Trans Mobility in Indian Cinema,” Prerna Subramanian
• Chapter 47. “Decolonizing Queer Spatiality in Manipuri Cinema: A Theoretical Analysis of Apaiba Leichil through Film and Queer Paradigms,” Kingshuk Banerjee and Rajni Singh 

Theme 17. Bollywood

• Chapter 48. “Bobby Darling’s Self-Representation: Navigating between Stereotype and Inclusivity in Bollywood,” Samrat Sharma and Arpita Sarker
• Chapter 49. “Reimagining Trans Bodies in Bollywood Movies in the 21st Century,” Ali Saha

Theme 18. Regional Cinemas

• Chapter 50. “Reframing Transness: Shame, Transgression, and Acceptance in Malayalam Trans Cinema,” Sony Jalarajan Raj and Adith K. Suresh
• Chapter 51. “Trans Bodies in Malayalam Cinema: Class, Caste, and the Politics of Representation,” Anjitha Gopi
• Chapter 52. “Trans-Feminist and Decolonial Interventions in Tamil Cinema,” Tanupriya
• Chapter 53. “Exploring Parallel Lives and Silenced Truths in Bengali Cinema: Transgender Identity and Sexual Politics in Samantaral (2017),” Souradip Bhattacharyya
• Chapter 54. “Abjection and the Transgender Gaze: Becoming Trans in Koti and Amhi Ka Tisare,” Amar Ramesh Wayal and Anupama A. P.
• Chapter 55. “Changing the Portrayal of Transgender Protagonists in Indian Cinema,” Chandrakant Kamble

Interested authors should submit a 300-word abstract, a 200-word biography, and a sample of a previously published chapter or article to 

https://bit.ly/IndianTransCinema 

no later than July 1, 2025.  

Each chapter will provide extensive references to both trans theory and film theory. Abstracts for proposed chapters should include several references to both trans theory and film theory, with an explanation for how these references will support your argument. Your list of references does not count toward the 300 word limit for abstracts.

Proposals that do not integrate references to film theory and trans theory in a compelling manner will be rejected.

Proposals should focus on films with a specifically trans focus, not merely a broadly LGBTQ focus.

If your chapter will have more than one author, please send a 200-word biography for each author. Proposals submitted by email will not be accepted. Abstracts and biographies should be submitted as Word documents, and previously published chapters or articles should be submitted as PDFs. Both Word files and PDFs should contain the author’s name in the file names. Please include your email address in your biography file so we can contact you with our decision about your proposal.

Authors will be notified whether their proposals are accepted by July 20, 2025. Partial first drafts are due by September 1, 2025; solid first drafts of full chapters are due by December 1, 2025, and final versions that cross-reference other chapters extensively are due March 1, 2026. All chapters must include at least one author with a PhD. In your 200-word biography, please note the year and university where you earned your doctorate. Only previously unpublished works will be considered. 

We are seeking chapters that cover the full breadth of India's trans films, so we are not accepting proposals that explore films already examined by confirmed chapters. Please do NOT propose chapters on any of the following films, which are already covered in the handbook:

• Aalorukkam
• Abnormal
• Admitted
• Amhi Ka Tisare
• Antharam
• Apaiba Leichil 
• Arddhanaari
• Ardh
• Ardhanaari
• Arekti Premer Golpo
• Atharyam
• Avalilekkulla Dhooram
• Babli by Night
• Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3
• Chachi 420
• Chalte Chalte
• Chameli
• Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui
• Chanthupottu
• Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish
• Daayraa
• Darmiyaan
• Dream Girl
• Dream Girl 2
• Fireflies (Jonaki Porua)
• Gangubai Kathiawadi
• Gender Identity
• Haddi
• I am Bonnie
• I am Joyita
• India’s Biggest Transgender Festival
• In Transit
• Iratta Jeevitham
• Jeevan Smriti
• Jodhaa-Akbar
• Jogwa
• Kaalakaandi
• Kanchana
• Khejdi
• Koti
  
• Lamhe
• Laxmii
• Made in Heaven
• Maine Dil Tajhko Diya
• Manikarnika
  
• Maya Mridanga
• Memories in March
• The Missing Colors
• Murder 2
• Naanu Avanalla…Avalu
• Nagarkirtan
• Navarasa
• Nilayile Vellaramkallukal
• Njan Marykutty
• Paa
• Paatal Lok
• Paava Kadhaigal
• Padmavat
• Page 3
• Pati, Patni aur Panga
• Performing the Goddess
• Qissa: The Tale of a Lonely Ghost
• Ra.One
• Rajni
• Sacred Games
• Sadak
• Sadma
• Safed
• Samantaral
• Sangharsh
• Savdhaan India
• Shabnam Mausi
• Shakti: Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki
• Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan
• Super Deluxe
• T
• Taali
• Tamanna
• Tamasha
• That’s My Boy
• Trans Kashmir
• Transcender
• Udalazham
• Unwoman

Proposals for chapters on any of the above films will be rejected.

You are welcome to submit more than one abstract. If you submit multiple abstracts for different chapters, please add a note at the top of each abstract to indicate whether you wish to be considered for writing only a single chapter, or whether you wish to be considered for writing more than one chapter.

The first editor's previous books include Transgender India: Understanding Third Gender Identities and Experiences (2022), Indian Feminist Ecocriticism (2022), The Routledge Handbook of Trans Literature (2024), and Transecology: Transgender Perspectives on Environment and Nature (2021).