CHENNAI: For Shilpa (28), a transgender sex worker and film junior artiste, work starts only after 9 pm. After having dinner at home in Choolaimedu, she puts on one of her expensive chudidars and makeup, and heads to her regular spot in front of a star hotel on Nungambakkam High Road. For the past one-and-a-half years, she and four others have used this spot to meet customers.Luck plays a big role in getting a good customer. “We meet a variety of people. Sometimes, a customer might drive up in a car and would prefer to park the vehicle amongst others in the posh locality so that no one knows what’s happening in the vehicle. Otherwise we go to one of the lodges in Koyambedu,” Shilpa explains.While she charges a person in a car Rs 2,000, her rate is over Rs 3,000 if the person opts for a hotel room. Then, there are those who want a full night service in their own house, for which she charges about Rs 5,000. Shilpa has a network of contacts, mostly room service boys who working in lodges in Koyambedu. They keep the hotel gates open and rooms available without the knowledge of their owners. Their cut: Rs 300 to Rs 500 for a room for half-an-hour.Shilpa’s customers vary from television comperes, TV serial artistes and college students to businessmen and even rowdies. “There have been times when a decently-dressed rowdy come in an MUV or call taxi and ask for our service. In the car there could be five others, all drunk and ready to pounce on us if we get in,” she reveals. “College students often come in groups and bargain with us; when we refuse, they pick a fight and pelt stones,” she says.While some people come to her thinking she is a woman, some others just want to talk to her and know about her life. She is also approached by many 18-year-olds, but she sends them away. Shilpa and her friends guard their turf carefully. They don’t allow anybody to join them that at the pick up spot. For, business is important; it can’t be shared with anybody.Between 9.30 pm and midnight, Shilpa can service only two customers before getting back home by 1.30 am with about Rs 1,500 in hand. Shilpa has acted in a few Kollywood movies - Irumbukottai Murattusingam, Erode Sivagiri, Vridhachalam, Ninaithale Inikkum, Kadhal Kondein, Marandhaen Mei Marandhaen and E. She is paid between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 apart from Rs 200 as conveyance. “When I have a shoot, I don’t go for my regular night stint. If I get regular opportunities in films, I wouldn’t have to go in for prostitution,” she says.(Name changed to protect identity)
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