{"id":4108,"date":"2016-04-15T18:32:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T13:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4108"},"modified":"2026-07-17T20:54:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:24:35","slug":"gazal-dhaliwal-transwoman-writer-ek-ladki-ko-dekha-toh-aisa-laga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=4108","title":{"rendered":"Growing Up to Be Gazal Dhaliwal, the Transwoman Writer of Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

W<\/span>hen Gazal Dhaliwal was five years old, she was certain about two things: First, that she didn\u2019t feel at home in the body that she was born in, and second, that she would grow up to be a Hindi film heroine. So when she found herself unable to alter the former, she drowned herself into preparing for the latter. As soon as her <\/p>mother<\/span><\/a> would step out of the house, Dhaliwal would sneak into her room and wear her dupattas, twirling and posing in them as if a camera were perpetually filming her. <\/span>\n\nAlmost 30 years later, Dhaliwal has in a way, realised those two dreams of her five-year-old self. Armed with the name of the condition that made her a prisoner in her own body \u2013 gender dysphoria \u2013 Dhaliwal opted for a sex reassignment surgery in 2005, 25 years after being forced to identify with a gender she craved to escape. And although, Dhaliwal didn\u2019t become the archetypal <\/span>heroine<\/span><\/a>, she did end up as the girl who gets to write heroines for a living. <\/span>\n\nThis week Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga\u00a0<\/i>will introduce one of the most anticipated heroines in what looks like the first mainstream lesbian romance, poised to go down in Bollywood history as a watershed moment. In fact, when Dhaliwal started writing the script two years ago, it was yet to be commissioned. She wrote the first draft of the film \u2013 inspired by PG Wodehouse\u2019s <\/span>Damsel in Distress<\/span><\/i> \u2013 in just two months. And when the first teaser of the film \u2013 in which Sonam Kapoor is rumoured to play a gay lead \u2013 was released, Dhaliwal shared it with a caption where she revealed that the widely anticipated film had been \u201cseveral decades\u201d in the making, implying that it might just have the autobiographical leanings of its transwoman writer.<\/span>\n\nA few weeks ago, Dhaliwal made her leanings quite evident by doing something that in Bollywood speak, could easily be interpreted as self-destruction. Barely a month before the release of arguably her biggest film, Dhaliwal directly acknowledged \u2013 and spoke out against \u2013 the <\/span>sexual assault<\/span><\/a> allegations facing <\/span>Rajkumar Hirani<\/span><\/a>, one of Bollywood\u2019s most connected and successful directors, and who was until recently, also the co-producer of <\/span>Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga. <\/span><\/i>\n

And although, Dhaliwal didn\u2019t become the archetypal heroine, she did end up as the girl who gets to write heroines for a living.<\/blockquote>\nShe called out the calculated silence that engulfed the accusations and made public her desire for the <\/span>victim<\/span><\/a> to receive justice. It felt like a striking display of spine by a rank outsider who could have chosen to remain quiet. And yet, Dhaliwal refused to follow the diktat of the industry\u2019s powerful men, who have benefitted from Hirani\u2019s work and are in a position to hold him accountable, but refused to so much as bat an eye. But Dhaliwal, who is just four films old, doesn\u2019t seem to be confined by any pressures, yet. <\/span>\n\nIt\u2019s also the first thing that strikes you about Dhaliwal when you meet her in person. She is as measured with her opinion as she is candid, freely dissecting the hierarchies and tradition in Bollywood. \u201cI\u2019ve been working in Bollywood and writing scripts since 2009, but it took an inordinately long time for my work to start coming out, because neither did I know anyone in the industry nor am I good at networking or marketing myself,\u201d she told me. It\u2019s why she had to \u201c<\/span>audition<\/span>\u201d for <\/span>Lipstick Under My Burkha<\/span><\/i><\/a> before writing the dialogues for the film in 2013, \u201cNo one knew what I had done because none of the films I\u2019d worked on had released, so Alankrita sent me two sample scenes and suggested I write the dialogues for those scenes before they decided to hire me,\u201d Dhaliwal said.<\/span>\n\n\"ek_ladki_ko_dekha_toh_aisa_laga\"\n
\n\n

Vinod Chopra Films<\/p>\n\n<\/figcaption>\n\n<\/figure>\n\nChances are that you may have heard of Dhaliwal only about two years ago after <\/span>Lipstick Under My Burkha<\/span><\/i>. It\u2019s not surprising given that her decade-long <\/span>career<\/span><\/a> is marked by conventional struggles like scripts and projects scrapped at the last minute. But Dhaliwal was resilient: She locked herself in her house for 27 days to write her first script and then went about distributing it around production houses in Mumbai. \u201cI dropped my script with receptionists, knowing that it could very well be stolen but also hoping that someone would read it. Although, no big director read my script, it still managed to inspire a Hindi film. That\u2019s some luck,\u201d she adds. That first script, she tells me, was titled \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d and revolved around a \u201c<\/span>dysfunctional<\/span><\/a> Punjabi family\u201d, and is yet to see the light of day. <\/span>\n\nAt the same time, her writing career is also underlined by serendipitous chances: A chance introduction with director Tanuja Chandra birthed an eight-year-long association with her \u201cfriend and <\/span>mentor<\/span><\/a>\u201d and resulted in two films \u2013 <\/span>Qarib Qarib Singlle<\/span><\/i><\/a> in 2017 and a short film, <\/span>Monsoon Date<\/span><\/i><\/a> last year \u2013 and set in motion her Bollywood debut. It was Chandra, who recommended Dhaliwal to her brother-in-law, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who got her on board to write additional dialogues for the 2016 film, <\/span>Wazir<\/span><\/i>. And Chopra carried it forward by introducing Dhaliwal to his <\/span>sister<\/span><\/a>, Shelly Chopra Dhar, who directs <\/span>Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga<\/span><\/i>. It\u2019s a fascinating arrangement: a Bollywood outsider accelerating the fate of veritable insiders.<\/span>\n

\u201cJust because I am a woman, doesn\u2019t mean I can only write strong female characters.”<\/blockquote>\nAs one of the rare openly <\/span>queer<\/span><\/a> female writers, Dhaliwal is an anomaly in Bollywood, an industry that already boasts of abysmal representation of female writers and an even worse track record in offering newer perspectives \u2013 and ownership \u2013 in storytelling. That\u2019s the vacuum Dhaliwal fills, having experimented more with three films than most Hindi film writers boast of in a lifetime. Dhaliwal\u2019s protagonist in <\/span>Monsoon Date<\/span><\/i>, was a <\/span>transwoman<\/span><\/a>; her female protagonist in <\/span>Qarib Qarib Singlle <\/span><\/i>subverted the Bollywood stereotype of romantic heroines: In the film, Jaya (Parvathy) was a headstrong 35-year-old widow. And now, <\/span>Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga<\/span><\/i>\u00a0envisions a brand of LGBTQIA+<\/a> friendly romance that could represent a community that has rarely seen themselves as heroes in mainstream cinema.<\/span>\n\nAnd yet, Bollywood continues to regard her no differently than any other outsider: Dhaliwal is yet to work with the industry\u2019s big names or have her distinct voice nurtured in an industry far too comfortable with sticking to templates. She tells me about the director who refused to let her write a film because \u201cshe was a woman\u201d and about being approached for projects only when it is \u201csensitive\u201d or \u201cfemale-oriented\u201d. \u201cJust because I am a woman, doesn\u2019t mean I can only write strong female characters. It\u2019s 2018, the onus of writing rounded <\/span>female characters<\/span><\/a> shouldn\u2019t just be on women writers. It\u2019s as ridiculous as me saying that I need to find a man to write a male character,\u201d she tells me. To her, the biggest challenge lies not in how the industry sees her or judges her story, but in what they refuse to acknowledge: That she doesn\u2019t need to blend in to stand out in Bollywood.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, screenwriter Gazal Dhaliwal will introduce to the world her most anticipated heroine in Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, the first mainstream lesbian romance poised to go down in Bollywood history as a watershed moment. It marks the end of her decade-long struggle to be \u201cseen\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":4111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3114],"tags":[7488,7489,7490,223,1627,7491],"class_list":["post-4108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bollywood","tag-ek-ladki-ko-dekha-toh-aisa-laga","tag-gazal-dhaliwal","tag-gender-dysphoria","tag-lesbian","tag-lipstick-under-my-burkha","tag-trans-woman"],"yoast_head":"\nGrowing Up to Be Gazal Dhaliwal, the Transwoman Writer of Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This week, screenwriter Gazal Dhaliwal will introduce to the world her most anticipated heroine in Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, the first mainstream lesbian romance poised to go down in Bollywood history as a watershed moment. 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