HYDERABAD: During Pride month last June, people on Instagram campaigned to encourage queer content in regional languages. They met virtually to bond over poems, stories, literature, plays, movies, podcast channels and music from various Indian languages.
Taking this forward, city-based drag artiste Patruni Sastry has created a space where queer identities could be celebrated in Telugu. The idea cropped up when the Clubhouse app and other audio-basesd platforms caught people’s attention amid the pandemic. Patruni realised that it was the best time to start something like this. With limited resources, but a novel idea to start something for exclusive content on queer issues in Telugu via the popular medium of podcast, Ranguala Rattnam was born.
The word Rangualarattnam, loosely translated in Telugu, means a colourful giant wheel that represents the many colours of queer identities. It’s the first-ever Telugu queer podcast to be led by a Telugu queer person. “This is just my way of giving back to my mother tongue. We hope, with Rangula Rattnam, we would be able to propagate a better idea of queerness to the Telugu crowd,” they say. Ranguala Rattnam is available in more than seven channels, including Spotify, Google Podcast and Amazon Podcasts.