Queer ambition finds a home in India’s vibrant drag scene

Durga Gawde was a teen erstwhile they saw creator Nikhil Chopra instrumentality connected a feminine avatar for his 48-hour performance, Yog Raj Chitrakar Memory Drawing IX, at the 2009 Venice Biennale. In a Vogue interview, they retrieve however “this Indian antheral transformed from this ace hairy masculine fig to a big of characters until helium was this beauteous Victorian goddess-like lady. He did not leap from antheral to woman; helium conscionable kept changing.” That’s wherever Gawde archetypal saw “not a resistance queen oregon king, but a idiosyncratic utilizing resistance to messiness with sex and identity”.

That infinitesimal stayed with them, done years of questioning their identity, gender, and spot successful the world. Eight years later, different pivotal brushwood happened person to home. In New Delhi, they met Sushant Divgikar, besides known arsenic Rani KoHEnur, connected an electrical nighttime astatine Kitty Su — the pioneering, queer-friendly nightclub franchise — wherever she was performing alongside an American resistance queen. “I didn’t adjacent cognize determination was a resistance country successful India astatine the time,” recalls Gawde, who had conscionable returned from Rhode Island School of Design, wherever their ellipse of friends had expanded to see queer and trans people. “We met backstage, and Rani and I had this instant connection.”

By then, Gawde had discovered their fluidity erstwhile it came to gender, but wasn’t considering performing connected stage. “But Rani [a resistance parent and mentor] helped maine get retired of my caput and enactment myself retired there.” By 2018, Gawde became the archetypal resistance kid of what would go the Hauz of KoHEnur. Eventually, the sculptor and jock besides became India’s archetypal performing resistance king, Shakti.

An creation signifier with heavy roots

Drag is art; it is besides protestation — a theatrical deconstruction of sex wherever artists usage exaggerated aesthetics — multicoloured harlequin wigs, precocious glam makeup, glittering corsets and sky-high heels — to satirise oregon tweak societal norms. While variations of the creation signifier person existed for centuries, from the onnagata of Japanese Kabuki to the gender-agnostic actors of Bengali-Odia jatra, it has present undergone a monolithic commercialized explosion. Much of this is credited to the RuPaul-isation of the craft. RuPaul’s Drag Race, an Emmy-winning world contention bid hosted by American resistance icon RuPaul, transformed resistance from an underground queer sanctuary into a planetary improvement with a viable vocation path. While this displacement provided the assemblage with unprecedented fiscal stability, it besides equipped performers to ‘use their flair’ for activism — against legislative erasure and systemic prejudice.

The Indian resistance scene, much incipient successful its existent form, is its ain ecosystem. Performers blend the technicality of Western resistance with section mythology oregon people forms that exemplify sex play (such arsenic Arjuna arsenic the eunuch Brihannala). They don’t spot resistance arsenic a Western import, but arsenic a veiled acceptable of indigenous identities returning to the limelight.

Today, it is leaping into the mainstream. International queens are touring the country, homegrown stars are gracing mag covers, and non-queer venues are hosting large productions. Last year, Superqueens: the Musical, India’s archetypal resistance musical, opened astatine The Piano Man jazz nine successful Delhi. The show, directed by theatre creator Vivek Mansukhani and starring 5 resistance queens, including Whacker Cracker (Paridhi Chauhan) and Lush Monsoon (Aishwarya Ayushmaan), was a hit. (It volition beryllium returning this April.)

Drag artists are besides booking shows astatine kitty parties and large festivals specified arsenic Magnetic Fields. According to the queens, payments for these performances commencement from astir ₹5,000 per gig and spell up to ₹60,000 oregon more.

Indian manner is adopting the subculture’s gender-bending aesthetics too, signalling a broader taste integration. Jewellery marque Valliyan teamed up with resistance creator Osheen’s originative corporate Dragalactiq for a amusement astatine the 2024 Lakmē Fashion Week. The show featured Glorious Luna (Suruj Rajkhowa) and Dame Imfala (Yaikhom Sushiel) gathering a satellite astir Valliyan’s ‘spacebug’ postulation with insect-esque resistance characters.

Founder Nitya Arora is present a fervent advocate, often introducing friends and acquaintances to resistance shows. “Drag adds truthful overmuch worth to the originative manufacture portion uplifting queer voices,” she says. “Fashion is astir fantasy; it is astir self-expression and unapologetic presence. I don’t deliberation anyone does each of that much beautifully than the resistance community.”

Drag besides acts arsenic a large instrumentality of inclusion, Arora adds. By turning sex into a costume that tin beryllium enactment connected and taken off, resistance reduces the “fear” associated with non-binary identities oregon divers sex expressions. Performers specified arsenic Hyderabad-based Patruni Sastry, for instance, are utilising resistance to pb firm workshops connected sex sensitisation and unconscious bias for planetary firms specified arsenic Google and Uber; queens are fixtures astatine high-end weddings, injecting a campy vigor into accepted ceremonies. Meanwhile, integer platforms specified arsenic DragVanti person go captious archives for section resistance history, and a caller procreation of performers is leveraging societal media to demystify sex fluidity for the Indian masses.

Drag motherhoods

Another caller improvement successful India is resistance performers coming unneurotic for kinship and to make harmless spaces. A ‘house’ is simply a chosen household of resistance performers and queer creatives, led by an experienced ‘mother’ oregon ‘father’ who mentors the younger queens and kings. Originating from the ballroom civilization of New York — a queer subculture wherever resistance performers competed — the conception is often equated with India’s gharanas, a strategy of patronage and lineages successful Hindustani classical euphony and dance.

Drag houses are known to supply shelter, community, and care. The parent teaches their kid everything from makeup, choreography and community-building to navigating the gig economy. Many besides assistance their children entree aesculapian attraction (such arsenic PrEP, oregon pre-exposure prophylaxis, which reduces the hazard of contracting HIV), intelligence wellness professionals, and pro bono ineligible help, erstwhile needed. On the surface, Gawde didn’t request specified a enactment system. They had grown up with parents who were ocular artists and ostensibly open-minded. “My narration to creation was intertwined with my narration to my family. But that narration was highly dysfunctional and toxic,” they say.

Behind closed doors, this power took a much stifling turn: they were barred from the sports they loved and coerced into a rigid, performative femininity. Until their resistance parent helped them interruption retired of it. Through rigorous mentorship — providing enactment and helping them decode their creator persona — Divgikar tackled Gawde’s fears regarding self-expression and nationalist performance.

Kitty Su and Kinnar Samaj

One of the earliest scaffoldings for resistance houses was erected astatine the nightclub wherever Gawde met Divgikar. Kitty Su, founded by Keshav Suri, the enforcement manager of Lalit Suri Hospitality, successful 2011, gave India’s nascent resistance country its archetypal existent country to breathe. Divgikar is unequivocal astir the debt. “Keshav was the archetypal to present this sorority to us. This was a clip erstwhile cipher other was doing queer-exclusive events.” Even though Suri didn’t make a ceremonial location successful his name, helium made an incubator for the likes of Divgikar.

Suri views resistance arsenic a captious span into LGBTQIA+ politics, offering an accessible introduction constituent for those unfamiliar with queer identities. He believes “drag has ever been mainstream successful spirit; the satellite is simply catching up to its sparkle [now]”. He would emotion to spot resistance go acold much expansive and inclusive. “Drag tin beryllium comedy, poetry, classical dance, ballet, music, oregon adjacent governmental satire. Long earlier world TV discovered it, India had resistance thriving successful people theatre and nukkad nataks. If anything, we should beryllium bringing resistance backmost to the streets and stages wherever it has ever belonged,” helium says.

Divgikar, who made past successful 2020 arsenic the archetypal Indian resistance performer connected the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list, is simply a resistance multi-hyphenate. “I travel from privilege. I americium formally educated, and I was ne'er forced to permission my home,” she says. Over the years, Divgikar, with her signature agelong brownish hairsbreadth and chunky bling, has breached mainstream barriers by competing connected shows specified as Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, and appearing successful movie and tv productions specified as Thank You for Coming (2023) and 36 Days (2024).

As she recovered her footing successful the amusement industry, she saw however different resistance artists had endowment that “needed polishing”. So, erstwhile she decided to physique her ain house, Divgikar turned to the grassroots for guidance. “I looked astatine the gharana culture and Hijra community, and realised that what they’ve been doing for truthful agelong — with assemblage gathering and self-organising — is amazing,” she says.

Divgikar has 18 elders from the (Hijra) Kinnar Samaj who counsel transgender communities crossed the country. As her location grew, she went connected to mentor the likes of Delhi-based decorator and creator Anwesh Sahoo, and Mumbai-based exemplary and resistance performer Suruj (Glorious Luna).

Luna, with her arched pencil-thin eyebrows and lavish handcrafted ensembles, has since started her ain location successful 2021. “Being a resistance parent is simply a small antithetic from what galore would expect. I beryllium with my children and brainstorm originative ideas. We navigator unneurotic portion discussing our blocks, oregon program for a aboriginal task portion dancing to a caller deed number,” explains Luna. In a house, determination is country for everyone. “We marque things hap together. These hangouts mightiness look casual, but they springiness commencement to large things.” With her children, who often unrecorded together, Luna has gone connected to make the country’s premier resistance event, the It Ball, and a queer modelling agency, Current Management, to make opportunities for marginalised talent.

Lately, done the It Ball, Luna has created an extended household that includes attendees and friends, who go portion of conversations to physique thing new. “Mothering was a earthy impulse for me, arsenic a migrant [from Assam] and arsenic a queer person. I deliberation that is the lawsuit with astir of us. Who doesn’t privation to belong? Who doesn’t privation radical to telephone their own?” she asks. “And erstwhile that comes with training, mentoring, and entree to show and wage — that’s everything!”

Letting children fly

Sahoo archetypal met Divgikar erstwhile she judged ‘Mr Gay India 2016’ (which helium won). He credits her location for making him consciousness similar helium genuinely belonged. “When I entered the satellite of KoHEnur, it felt similar a parallel beingness wherever we were each queer, were capable to speech freely astir our experiences, and were empowered to manifest our dreams,” helium says. Though Sahoo’s biologic household wasn’t unsupportive, a chosen household offered an oasis helium couldn’t find astatine home. “With my parents, I lived a milquetoast life,” helium says. “So, I cherished that balance. Having my resistance household wherever I could springiness and person enactment without immoderate apology.”

Divgikar has watched resistance children join, turn and leave, and held abstraction for each of it. “I’m not 1 of those mothers who volition say, ‘How tin you halt doing drag?’ It’s a journey, and knowing that resistance is not for you is besides a portion of it.” Every 3 years oregon so, the operation of a resistance household changes, she adds. Drag children spell connected to recovered their ain houses, oregon physique their ain assemblage extracurricular the house; they besides permission to prosecute other, often related, vocation paths. “It tin beryllium hard to accept, but it is simply a changeless reminder of your occupation arsenic a guardian: to fto your children alert and go who they privation to be,” she says.

Informal houses exist, too

Hyderabad-based Sastry, known by their signifier sanction Saas Who Ma (with her roster of vibrant wigs and shimmering saris), points retired that astir resistance houses are concentrated successful metro cities, mostly Mumbai and Delhi. “While determination are a increasing fig of resistance performers successful different cities similar Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the numbers are not important capable to person excessively galore resistance houses. There, queens execute unneurotic and look aft each different without ‘hierarchical location cultures’. We each cognize each other, and are tight-knit similar a sisterhood,” Sastry says.

Goa-based non-binary doc and resistance performer Gautam Bandodkar, who goes by the sanction Mysticurl Flame — their winged eyeliner contrasting with their afloat beard — pilots 1 specified unconventional resistance family. At House of Flame, “we meet, rehearse, perform, and person a batch of fun. We don’t privation to look astatine being a household arsenic work”, Bandodkar says. As galore resistance artists person regular professions excessively — doctors and lawyers, to lawsuit managers, constitution artists and DJs — the informality helps. The location has since seen its younger members moving into careers and lives of their own, but the radical chat remains active. “We support coming backmost to each different erstwhile required,” they say.

Architecture of queer care

The attraction and acceptance of resistance houses tin often marque the quality betwixt surviving and living. Bengaluru-based histrion and resistance creator Alex Mathew, known by the avatar Maya, has experienced it first-hand. He met his resistance mother, Boston-based queen LaWhore Vagistan (Kareem Khubchandani, a researcher and show artist), portion she was visiting India. Vagistan became a pivotal unit successful changing the trajectory of his career: teaching Mathew the creation of storytelling “beyond dancing and singing”, and adjacent however to bash cut-crease constitution connected his eyes.

But it was encountering a trans gharana in Andhra Pradesh a fewer years agone — portion helium worked for Solidarity Foundation, an NGO for enactment workers and sex and intersexual minorities successful South India — that changed however Mathew understood the assemblage altogether. “I met the caput mother, Laila, and I performed ‘Kajra Re’ for her. She said, ‘Your expressions are truthful large that I would similar to follow you arsenic my daughter’,” helium says. “You tin ideate however unfastened the strategy is. She had known maine for lone a day.” Though helium declined, helium accepted what was genuinely connected offer. “I told her each I request is your blessing. And she said, ‘That’s ever determination with you’.”

The Mumbai-based writer, creator and exertion reports connected manner and culture.