Trollywood to Bollywood

Kanti Raj presents an exclusive interview with the first Trolly actress, supermodel and beauty queen to cross over to Bollywood - Shinata Sangha.

Since you are already an accomplished supermodel and actress at such a young age, please tell us what motivated you and continues to motivate you today?

Firstly it’s a pleasure to be approached for this interview. When I was only 17 years old I began my career as a showgirl, one day I was picked on and bullied by a group of South Asian drag queens who were a lot elder than me so badly. They taunted me, bullied me and also attacked me, they did what ever they could do to get me off the scene, but I didn’t let that get to me. I told myself that one day I will make my name so big and make something of myself. I guess that was what motivated me the most back then. What continues to motivate me now is that fact that I have achieved so much within the past two years of my career in a short span of time. I have provided other South Asian Transgender women a platform to voice and view there opinion and come forward to showcase there talent and realize there dreams. I believe the Asian society is very backward minded especially towards transgender/gay/bi/lesbian and look down upon us. My only message to them is that no matter what creed or walk of life we come from we too are human beings. I’m here to fight all odds and battles to become triumphant and victorious, to stand a strong independent transgender woman that I am today. Until our community doesn’t let us live in peace, I wont stop fighting for the rights of transgender women from around the world. I guess that is what continues to motivate me today.


We've heard that you've bagged a Bollywood film opposite Govinda and Celina Jaitley. Please tell us how you managed to break the glass ceiling for other T-girls with this amazing accomplishment?

I have been getting movie offers from both British mainstream producers and also from Bollywood, I was firstly offered two British films namely ‘The Dancer’ and ‘Diana’ but I rejected both the roles as I felt they were not a character I wanted to portray. Bollywood movies have included transgender women in the past but I felt they made us out to be a laughing stock and a joke, something I wasn’t prepard to do. If I was to make my debut in a Bollywood movie I would only do a role I felt comfortable with and a role which would allow me to speak out for the rights of transgender women to show the world we too are talented and beautiful human beings. A friend of mine who is a make up artist was on the sets of one of the shoots with the producer of Kingcon and he showed the producer a picture of me from his mobile phone and told the producer about me. The producer was very interested and immediately contacted me for a role, which I rejected at first. After a lot of convincing I was invited to come to India to go through the scripts and meet the director and from there it was history.

Please tell us the total number of pageants you've won because we have lost count!

Well including all my Main titles and sub awards I have won in the pageants I’ve competed in it reaches a grand total of 18! A staggering amount, I have been competing in pageants since the age of 17. I am now 20, however I have decided to retire from beauty pageants for the time being to venture into different fields. Pageants take up a lot of time, preparing/dieting/rehearsing getting outfits made and designed, plus they also get very expensive. Many of the organisers have told me it’s about time I give other girls a chance to compete and win. Plus when you do too many pageants eventually the judges will get bored of you. So I would rather retire and quit the pageants whilst I’m still hot property. You never know I may compete again in two years but I have won most of the major ones including Miss UK Transvestite 2006, Miss Glamour Queen UK 2006, Miss Gay India 2007, Miss Transvestite 2008, T-girl of the year 2008, Outstanding achievement award Queen of Nations 2007, runner up Miss Alternative London, Miss Mango Tree International 2007 and placed highly and won sub awards in many others. In the future my dream is to go to USA and Thailand to compete for prestigious pageants there, maybe when I am 23.

I am sure being a huge transvestite celebrity is not easy. Please shed some light on what must have been a very difficult journey.

Ofcourse the journey has been so difficult and a very long ride but like I said before I’m a independent strong transgender women who has my head firmly placed on my shoulders and my feet firmly placed on the ground. I know what I want in life and I will work hard to achieve it. I no longer let petty comments or remarks get me upset or feel hurt. In the past I have had such disgusting messages sent to me (even including Malati Chopra sending me abusive messages swearing at me) I think it is down to sheer jealousy and people only pick on those and their achievements because they don’t have the courage to achieve their dreams so they don’t want to see other people succeed in life. However, I do feel that a lot of people have praised my achievements. I get a lot of kind messages from other South Asian transgender women thanking me to help them realize there dream. All they need is a push and I do feel the Asian society is slowly starting to accept us. I recently landed my own Gossip page and blog for a mainstream British Asian Magazine called ‘Brit-Asian’, and I never thought a big magazine would give a transgender women her own gossip page. Ive also been approached by mainstream designers who want to use me for there model to shoot campaigns, slowly but surely we will get there one day and get the respect we truly deserve.

Who is your role model and what have you learned from her?

My role models include the likes of Bipasha Basu, Koena Mitra and Rakhi Sawant. I simply adore and love these women a lot, and I admire their determination to succeed in life. Rakhi Sawant is an indivdual who speaks her mind, she doesn’t take crap from anyone and will always stand up for herself a true independent woman, and she is very gracefull and a brilliant dancer. Bipasha Basu because she made the world realise big is beautiful and girls with curves and hips are beautiful, when Bipasha entered bollywood she was not skinny like other actresses, she still managed to carve a niche for herself and became one of the most desired women in the world. And Koena Mitra I think she ozzes sex appeal and she is beautiful to look at.

My last message to all my fans and admirers is no matter what creed or walk of life one comes from, do not judge them. Only respect and accept them and realize the world too can be a beautiful place to live in especially with peace and harmony. God please.



For more info. please visit Shinata Sangha Bipasha Beyonce's official websites:

WWW.SHINATA.CO.UK
WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/SHINATA1
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/SHINATASANGHA
SHINATA_SANGHA@HOTMAIL.COM