What does it mean to be a man?

The ability to bear children has historically been, and continues to be, deeply intertwined with notions of womanhood, serving as a powerful symbol of biological fulfilment, social identity, and cultural expectation. Across cultures, menstruation, gestation, and lactation have often been treated as defining features of femininity, while the capacity for reproduction has been framed as a woman’s natural purpose. Masculinity, meanwhile, has historically been defined in opposition to these reproductive functions, reinforcing a rigid binary between the male and female body.

Rahul Roye’s short film ‘Aman’ challenges this bioessentialist understanding of gender and the conservative assumptions that underpin conventional notions of masculinity and femininity. The 15-minute film follows Aman, a trans man who discovers he is pregnant on the eve of his gender-affirming surgery. Played by queer activist and trans actor Kabir Maan in his acting debut, Aman is confronted with this revelation that forces him to reconsider his relationship with his body, his identity, and the prospect of parenthood. “Pregnancy remains one of the most deeply gendered experiences in our societies: ritualized, politicized, and controlled. By placing a trans man at its centre, the film exposes how fragile our definitions of gender truly are,” Roye writes in his director’s note.

These questions are especially resonant in the context of transgender experiences in India, where rejection and estrangement from birth families often leave trans people reliant on chosen family and the larger queer community for recognition, material support, and solidarity. Aman experiences these bonds through Sirat, a trans woman nurse played by New Delhi-based transgender actor Sirat Taneja, who navigates her own experiences of identity and chosen family. As Aman’s roommate and caregiver, Sirat embodies the forms of kinship and care that queer and trans people build beyond the confines of biological relationships.

Through ‘Aman’, Roye questions why pregnancy and masculinity are presumed to be incompatible in the first place. The film’s central conflict reaches its climax when Aman reveals his pregnancy to his lover, who asks whether the child is male or female. Aman lashes out at the question, which reduces the pregnancy to the same gender binary. The exchange also exposes how deeply ingrained these categories are, shaping even the most intimate conversations about bodies, identity, and parenthood.

The timing of Aman’s pregnancy adds another layer to the film’s exploration of gender. As he prepares for a procedure that represents an important step towards aligning his physical body with his gender identity, he discovers that his body is capable of producing a pregnancy — the very antithesis of traditional 'masculinity'. But instead of presenting this as evidence of an underlying, essential 'female' identity, Roye challenges the assumption that anatomy determines the totality of a person’s gender. In Aman, masculinity is not something that must be authenticated through a particular body, reproductive capacity, or relationship to fatherhood.

'Aman' premiered at the Torronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the 'Short Cuts' competition on 16 September 2026.

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