Abstract
Due to their long-standing marginalisation in mainstream social and cultural settings, the hijra community continuously strives for recognition. Bollywood film Laxmii 2020 has added to the prejudice and misconceptions surrounding hijras by perpetuating biases and stereotypes and using them as a source of comic relief and mockery. This article examines the portrayal of hijras in the Bollywood movie Laxmii ( Lawrence, 2020 ) based on two dimensions. The first is gender identity, as examined through the performative theory of gender rather than essentialist formulations. Second, Baudrillard’s (1983) formulation of postmodern hyperrealism is applied to analyse the exaggerations and mutilations of common concepts. Considering the positive and negative portrayals of hijra characters in Bollywood movies, we attempt a comparative study to comprehend the evolution of hijra representation diaphanously. However, in Laxmii, a substantial gap is recognised between reality and fiction, as the movie fails to demonstrate the real-life experiences of the hijras while paving the way to the narrative of the unreal ghost.
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