While very few Indian actresses have had the honour of winning the Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress awards internationally, this unique incident had happened in 1997 when an Indian actor won the award for portraying a transvestite, something no Indian has done before or since. That was neither Govinda or Kamal Haasan, who are known for their very popular roles in Aunty No 1 or Chachi 420. That was the late actor Nirmal Pandey, for the film Daayra.
Several Indian actors have played transgenders or cross-dressers in Indian cinema, with the latest entry being Nawazuddin Siddiqui for Haddi (2023). However, none of them won an international award for their performance.
The unique honour goes to late actor Nirmal Pandey, best known as a villain in films like Auzaar and Godmother in the 90s, and various supporting roles in critically-acclaimed and hit films. Early on in his career, Pandey starred in Amol Palekar’s critically-acclaimed 1996 film Daayra, where he played a transvestite who falls in love with a woman struggling to get out of trauma of a sexual assault. The woman opposite him was Sonali Kulkarni. Both the actors were praised for their performance in the film and at the Valenciennes Film Festival in France in 1997, Nirmal and Sonali shared the Best Actress award. Even the Limca Book of Records recognised Pandey’s special feat.
But Daayra never made it to the Indian theatres.
Due to its sensitive themes and focus on sexuality and crimes against women, the film never did get a theatrical release in India. Amol Palekar later told the media that the makers were asked to delete "some allegedly obscene dialogue and phrases " following which an A-certificate was given to the film by the Central Board of Film Certification in August 1996. However, it still did not release in theatres. Upon praise at international film festivals, it was given a direct-to-DVD release in India a few years later.
A National School of Drama graduate, Nirmal Pandey was born in 1962. Following his graduation from NSD, Nirmal moved to London to do theatre. Upon his return, he made his film debut in 1994 with Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen where he played dacoit Vikram Mallah. Apart from his negative roles in Auzaar, Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, and One 2 Ka 4, the actor showed his versatility with comic roles in films like Hadh Kar Di Aapne. Nirmal passed away in 2010 at the age of 47 of a heart attack. His final film, Lahore, was released posthumously.
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