Passing, Performance, and the Price of Fame

What does it take to be seen and what must be hidden to survive? In Chapal Rani, Sandip Roy resurrects the life of Chapal Bhaduri, the last great female impersonator of Bengali jatra theatre, whose art blurred gender and performance even as the world around him narrowed. In Love, Queenie, Mayukh Sen reclaims the story of Merle Oberon, the first South Asian actor nominated for an Academy Award, and who passed as white to ascend in Golden Age Hollywood. In conversation with WNYC Senior Reporter Arun Venugopal, Roy and Sen explore the costs of visibility, the politics of racial and gender performance, and the fragile line between reinvention and erasure.