Drag show: Pride of the party at Delhi's Kitty KO

As an open and safe space for the LGBTQ+, these parties are a haven for members of the community and allies.
Keshav Suri, the executive director of The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group.
Keshav Suri, the executive director of The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group.

It’s a Saturday night at Kitty KO and the energy is contagious and liberating. The crowd, dressed in their outrageous best, are all chanting, “Kim Chi, Kim Chi!”, the name of the South Korean-American drag queen from season 8 of the TV show RuPaul’s Drag Race, soon to appear on stage for her act.

And this isn’t the first time fans have been treated to an international queen of her stature; Milk, Pangina Heals, Betty Fvck, Miss Peppermint, Tammie Brown and others have all performed in the city.

As an open and safe space for the LGBTQ+, these parties are a haven for members of the community and allies.

For the past year, the popularity of these drag events in Bengaluru has soared, from being secretive and niche, to mainstream, and the number of local drag queens has increased. Is Bengaluru the newest hub for drag culture? We talk to the people responsible for the phenomenon.

The word “drag” allegedly comes from stage actors, in the late 1800s, who played female roles and dressed in women’s clothes, that would “drag” on the floor behind them.

ALSO READ: One year after historic Section 377 verdict, coming out is still not easy in India

The dictionary definition of a drag queen is a male performance artiste who dresses up in overtly feminine clothes, make-up and wigs to entertain. On stage, they sing, dance, act and interact with the audience. While not necessarily a rule, most drag queens are gay men.

The art form is also riddled with misconceptions, the major one being that drag queens are transpeople or crossdressers, which is not true. Drag is a performance art.

“We use drag to have fun – to entertain and perform,” says Alex Mathew, over our lunch at Koshy’s. As Maya, The Drag Queen, the PR consultant by day, is probably the poster girl for queens in the country.

“People have this notion that drag is always slutty. Just like there are different genres in movies, we have different genres of drag as well. Some are funny, while some are serious.

My character, for example, is one of elegance and poise,” he adds. When he started doing drag, there were no Indian role models to look up to. Alex says this was one of the reasons he took it up: to inspire others.

“When I started performing in 2014, I was a lone wolf,” he says, adding, “But we have slowly built this culture and community. When I saw other queens, especially from the West, it made me realise that this is okay and there are other people out there.”

Out in the open

Alex notes that the abolition of section 377, that decriminalised homosexuality, last September, played a key role in creating awareness about the community.

“We had very few people attending before. But post that, we saw an influx of crowds. Now people know that there are people like us. There is awareness,” he says.

ALSO READ: ‘Indians want LGBTQIA characters in leading roles’

Siddhanth Kodlekere who performs as Lady Bai, agrees. “Of course, drag was there before the judgement on section 377 was passed, but the amount of people coming for the shows has increased.

I see a lot more of the closeted crowd in the audience. Which is good for them, because they get to be whoever they want to be in these events,” he says.

Keshav Suri, the executive director of The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group, and the man behind Kitty KO, has been championing the cause and was one of the key figures fighting the battle to demolish section 377. “Through Kitty KO, we were the first to provide a mainstream platform for drag in India.

We have brought down international legends and we work with more than 35 Indian queens and kings, who perform regularly,” he tells us.

According to him, Bengaluru is most open to the culture. “Bengaluru, we have noticed, is the most receptive about the trend. The excitement and buzz in this city is the highest compared to other Indian cities,” he reveals.

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