‘Monkey Man’ Star Vipin Sharma on Playing a Trans Role in Dev Patel’s Directorial Debut: ‘He Saw Me as a Female Character’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Naman Ramachandran Indian actor Vipin Sharma is earning global acclaim for playing a trans character in Dev Patel‘s feature directorial debut “Monkey Man.” Sharma plays Alpha, the leader of a trans community known in India as hijras, who is instrumental in providing a new lease on life to Patel’s character when he’s down and out in “Monkey Man.” Aamir Khan’s “Taare Zameen Par” (2007) was Sharma’s breakthrough role, and since then he has won plaudits for “Paan Singh Tomar,” “Gangs of Wasseypur” and “Shahid” (all 2012), “Raanjhanaa” (2013), “Raman Raghav 2.0” (2016), “Paatal Lok” (2020) and “Dear Jassi” (2023). When director Anthony Maras offered Sharma a role in “Hotel Mumbai” (2018), starring Patel, the actor accepted.