Sushant Divgikar, a person of many talents, will be adding another feather to their cap after being an actor, dancer, singer, columnist and drag queen, among many others. They have ventured into the world of audio storytelling with the Hindi adaptation of none other than Neil Gaiman’s iconic The Sandman. Sushant (drag queen avatar Rani Ko-HE-Nur), who voices the character of Desire in the story, tells News18.com in a freewheeling chat that they would desire to be ‘Desire’, even if they weren’t that.
Known for winning Mr Gay India 2014 and being the first drag queen in India to be a part of a singing reality show and win the golden buzzer, among other things, Sushant shares with us their views on how far Indian society has come in terms of accepting drag. They also express their excitement at being able to be a part of The Sandman.
Excerpts from the interview:
What made you come on board?
I have been such a geek and a fan of the DC Universe since I was a kid. Recently I was telling my friend how cool would it be if I was a DC Comics character? And cut to today, I am speaking as a DC Comics character, Desire. I think the manifestation really works and it’s my childhood dream. And when I see my name with such amazing artists like Tabu, who is one of the most legendary iconic actors we have in our industry, Manoj Bajpayee, and the new age sensations, Vijay (Varma), Kubbra (Sait), Adarsh (Gourav), Tillotama (Shome), I get emotional. So it’s been an amazing experience.
Tell us about your character, Desire.
My character is very layered, mysterious, evil, but at the same time very suspenseful. I would desire to be ‘Desire’, even if I wasn’t ‘Desire.’ She will be nice and a b**ch in the same sentence. And I think that’s great. It was quite challenging because I’m otherwise quite a goof bag myself every day. But for me, to embody this was a challenge, but I really enjoyed it. It gave me perspective on to become a better artist.
How much is Desire similar to you?
I would like to believe that I have a lot of the characteristics because I am desired (laughs). I would like to have the confidence that Desire has. I would like to be as vicious, as in terms of some people who try to bring me down, but I don’t have that evil bone in me. So for me, it was even more challenging to play this character because she’s the kind of evil, and I am not.
When it comes to accepting drag as an art form, or as a form of expressing oneself, how far do you think that we as a society have come?
Honestly, India has been one of the pioneers in drag. It’s just that it was not termed as drag. In our history, there have been men performing as women, women performing as men, there have been transgender people performing as both men and women, all throughout our mythology all throughout our history. Even in the courts and palaces of Kings, you used to have ‘tawaifs.’ You had courtesans who used to perform, you had ‘devadasi’ culture, you had so many performers that used to challenge gender stereotypes back then.
But then, of course, we got invaded by the British and they were not good for anyone’s health, with all their toxic thoughts and ideas of masculinity and femininity, and they didn’t even consider trans people as people. They are the ones that came in and subdued us and our culture. Somewhere down the line, we forgot what our actual culture was.
And then we started believing what they used to tell us, which I think that currently is changing. I’m very happy to spearhead that in terms of the drag movement in this country, to remind people that we are as Indians, one of the most diverse and inclusive cultures.
In this current scenario, do you face any trouble when it comes to expressing yourself?
I think that every queer person or every person, to begin with, has all these outlines and stereotypes when it comes to gender expression. Like a woman should not have short hair, a man should not wear a pink shirt or a man should not wear makeup. All your actors – cisgender heterosexual actors in your industry – wear makeup. There are women who are working mothers and things like these should not be sensationalized. If men are not sensationalized for being working fathers, why should women be? These things came with the British rule and the colonization and I honestly believe that everybody should be allowed to do everything because how else will you know anyone’s full potential?
We need to understand that drag always had relevance in our culture, and that we need to celebrate every performance art for it being performance art, not for it being a man is doing this or a woman is doing this or a transgender person is doing this. That is secondary.
You always talk about the support you have received from your parents. How important is a support system for queer people or sexual minorities in India, given that there is still not enough acceptance?
It’s very important that families are supportive because if my family wasn’t supportive, I wouldn’t be sitting here being able to live my best life and, and explore my potential as an artist and doing something like The Sandman. If my parents didn’t accept me, I would have still been in the closet, and I been like living a lie. Every child should be given love first because as parents, that’s your one job – to love your child. Let the society speak, they are not paying your bills. That’s your child, regardless of whether they’re tall, short, plus size, thin, the fair, gay, straight, trans, that doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter.
What message would you like to share with the people who lack this kind of support in their lives?
I would like to tell them that you’re not alone. There will always be like-minded people who live the same life as you. When you go out in the world and and see more of it, you will realize that you’re not alone. If anybody makes other people feel they’re less, I think that they need to go into therapy. If you want to make yourself feel superior to someone by showing them as inferior, then you clearly have an issue boss, need to get that check.
The Sandman will be available on Audible from April 28 for free.
Read all the Latest Movies News here
Comments
0 comment