REWRITING HER STORY

Forgotten tales of tawaifs are seeing a revival on screen and in print

- REYA MEHROTRA

When Jubilee’s Nilofer, played by Wamiqa Gabbi in the 2023 web series, is brought to a shabby kotha in a newly independent India, she resists, asking to be taken to a better one. She finally escapes from the clutches of the ‘madam’ and goes on to become an actor in Bombay. Nilofer’s transition from a tawaif in British India to an actor in independent India perfectly captures the death of the tawaif culture that came about with the British rule and India’s subsequent independence.

This forgotten culture is the premise of filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s OTT magnum opus Heeramandi. The upcoming series narrates the stories of three generations of tawaifs living in Heera Mandi in pre-independence Pakistan’s Lahore. It is not as if tawaifs never had a screen presence—they have been immortalised by leading actors like Madhubala in Mughal-e-Azam (1960), Meena Kumari (Pakeezah, 1972) and Rekha and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (Umrao Jaan, 1981 and 2006). But there has been a renewed interest in the life and times of tawaifs, not just on screen but off it, too.