These testimonials are exhibited in academic institutions and galleries for public viewing and to show resistance against abuse. This is a community art project where the participant writes the experience on a handmade paper and imprints their red palm on it. The stories transgender people painful experiences of bullying, rape and assault are documented by the team. Kalki and the team of Sahodari Foundation have been interviewing more than 500 transgender and gender-diverse survivors of sexual abuse and assault from various states of India including People living with HIV (PLHIV), documenting their experiences as first-person accounts lives in depth. The Redwall is a project that was found in 2018 by Kalki to make the voices of the transgender and gender-diverse people of India powerful. She mentioned that Sridevi has been her inspiration since childhood. In November 2019, Kalki paid a tribute art show to the late Bollywood actress Sridevi by exhibiting digital portraits of Sridevi. Hundreds of transgender people have participated in the project across the different States of India and wrote their testimonials on a white paper with a red palm impression to show protest against sexual exploitation. She uses art to find a voice without words, providing transgender victims of sexual and physical abuse a freedom to express their pain through art called the Red Wall Project, also known as the Shut Up! Show. In 2016, Subramaniam sold her paintings through a crowdfunding campaign and funded the education of underprivileged transgender women. She has been invited to USA, Canada, Netherlands, and Germany to speak on art and activism. Kalki's artworks are considered vibrant and colourful. In 2019, Subramaniam acted in a lead role in a parallel Hindi feature film named Kalashnikov - The Lone Wolf which won the best film jury honours at the Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival. She is the first transgender woman in India to do a lead role in a motion picture. She made a special appearance in the 2018 film Sarkar in the song "Oru Viral Puratchi" which made her very popular. In 2011, Kalki starred in a lead role in a Tamil film, Narthagi, which focused around the lives of transgender people. In 2017, Subramaniam found the Transhearts art project, through which she has trained more than 200 transgender people in creating expressive artworks supporting their livelihood through workshops. In 2008, Kalki founded the Sahodari Foundation, an organization that advocates for transgender people in India. In October 2019, Kalki organised the first LGBTQI pride march in Coimbatore city of Tamil Nadu. When she lived in Auroville, she protested against encroachments of village lands by Auroville. In 2010, she trained many underprivileged transgender women in community journalism and encouraged them to make short documentary films telling their own stories. She has created more than 12 documentary films on LGBT rights and has also appeared in international documentary films. The project was later closed due to lack of financial support. In 2009 when a popular matrimonial website rejected the matrimonial listing of a transgender woman, she took it as a challenge and launched India's first matrimonial website for transgender people. She was one of India's well-known campaigners behind the Supreme Court of India's judgment legalizing transgender identity. She is known for her innovative activism using technology, art, films, and literature as tools to voice for transgender empowerment. Kalki also lived in Auroville for many years.įrom 2005, Kalki has campaigned for transgender rights in India. This is the first Tamil magazine published for transgender people in India. During her postgraduate studies, she started publishing a monthly magazine in Tamil for transgender women called Sahodari (which means sister). Kalki holds two master's degrees: Masters in Journalism Mass Communication and Masters in International Relations. Born into a working-class family, Kalki was an academically bright student and topped her class.
Kalki was born in Pollachi, a town in Tamil Nadu.