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Video Editor: Puneet Bhatia
Camera: Abhay Sharma and Abhishek Ranjan
Camera Asst.: Mayank Chawla
(This story was first published on 26.06.18)
"You're born naked and the rest is drag," is a famous quote by RuPaul, American Drag Queen, and creator of the popular reality show, RuPaul’s drag race. The show which is currently in its 10th season is inspiring a generation in India to pick up drag as an performance art.
Growing up in Ranchi, Ayushman didn’t know about the wide spectrum of sexuality. “These were things one had to come to a big city to learn,” he said. His first introduction to drag was through the American television sitcom Friends.
A graduate of National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, the 26-year-old is a human rights lawyer by day and a drag queen by night. He calls himself Lush Monsoon. “As Ayushman, I am very people pleasing. I am always laughing and joking. Making you feel comfortable. As Lush, I am the one feeling comfortable,” he said.
Talking about the influence the show had on him, he said, “RuPaul’s drag race came at the time when I was going through depression. The show had such an empowering message of embracing yourself, embracing your femininity which I sadly hadn’t come across in my day-to-day life.”
Prateek Sachdeva is a freelance dancer and a drag performer. His drag queen name is Betta Naan Stop. The name is a combination of a vibrant fish and his favourite food. Naan and Stop together said sounds like non stop. It serves as a constant reminder for him to get better.
At 19, Nitish Anand is the youngest Indian drag queen. When he was 18 and legal to be a drag performer, he decided to call himself Shabnam Bewafa. A lot of the inspiration for Shabnam Bewafa come from Kareena Kapoor’s most iconic onscreen character “Poo”.
Nitish was only 5 when he lost his mother. “When I am in drag, I look a lot like her. Maybe that’s is one of the reasons I won't stop doing drag.,” he said.
Prateek, Ayushman and Nitish said they don’t want to be women, they only like dressing up. “The entire philosophy of drag is that gender is a performance. Don't take it too seriously,” Ayushman said.
The art form is new to India, and the audience is still getting used to it. Drag queens are often confused with trans women, sex workers or escorts.
Prateek and Ayushman spoke about how they have been groped and felt up when they were in drag.
Currently, there are very few venues that hire them. Kitty Su is among the handful that hosts drag queen performances.
From convincing a tailor to stitch a dress to buying makeup and wigs, from embarrassing oneself in a shoe store for trying female footwear to getting spanx from a high-end mall, being a drag queen isn’t easy. But then, there are fools who dream.
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