Thiruvananthapuram: Breaking stereotypes, advertisement agencies have started accepting transgender people as models. After a trans woman appeared as a cover girl of a vernacular magazine, another
transgender model is testing her modelling prowess. A first-of-its-kind hoarding featuring transgender model
Gowri Savithri has been installed at Thrissur Round.
Gowri has modelled for Karalkada along with actor-model Mathai Bibin. The hoarding carries a noteworthy tagline ‘Gender has many colors, but Kasavu has only one’. The ads, created by Kochi-based DocArt Productions, has already became a topic of discussion.
Anish Rajendran, proprietor of Karalkada, said that they wanted a break from the set pattern for advertisements. “The idea to introduce a transgender person as model came out in a discussion with the ad agency DocArt. Unlike the normal portrayal of transgender people with loud make up and flashy clothes, we wanted to keep it simple and subtle,” Anish said.
Deepa, wife of Anish, said they found it difficult signing up male models for the assignment. “Many models refused when they knew the co-actor was a transgender. Bibin was excited at the idea,” Deepa said.
Thirty-two-year-old Gowri expressed happiness in brands accepting her as a model. “I hope this advertisement will be a model for others to give works to transgender people like any other professional,” she said.
Sharmila Nair, creative director of DocArt, said that she had previously introduced Gowri as a model for an ad of a boutique, but, a popular brand accepting a TG model in a large-scale campaign is a first. “It was part of a series of ads and we have also used elderly man and woman for other ads. Since Karalkada is an established brand, we decided to take a break from traditional models. When idea of introducing a transgender model was suggested, the Karalkada team were ready for that,” said Nair.
Ratheesh Raveendran, creative director of DocArt, who wrote the tagline, said it was inspired from the rainbow flag of LGBTIQ pride.
“From the binary concept of man and woman, the society has slowly started accepting the wider concept of gender which include lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, etc. We are happy that the caption is making people think about this,” Raveendran said.