While the city was bursting Fireworks, celebrating Diwali, People from the LGBTQIA communities had their own Crackers ready ! the Sizzling Drag queens !!. Hyderabad hosted its first-ever Drag Con in India were drag queens, aspirants, artists and enthusiast all came under one roof of Hylife Brewing company of 26th September curated and excecuted by Humans of Nirvana ,Bhagi Sravani and Patruni Chidananda Sastry .
There were more than 10 drag performers from different walks of life including Androgynous fashion model Taposh Halder, Makeup Artist Javed Idrisi, Activist and Writer Ashley Tellis, Performance artist and Expressionist dancer Patruni Chidananda Sastry were few of them who kept their best foot forward for Drag Con. the special attraction for the event was "Annonymous Drag" a performer to represent people in closet and spreading their representation of existence within the LGBTQIA community.
The event started with a ramp walk by all the drag queens followed by Performances. the First performance of the day was by Ball Breaking Bernadette aka Ashley Tellis who performed Political drag representing the style of Divine David. In his performance, Ashley skilled heart hitting poetry titled "Gay Love Poem '" followed by another piece of poetry titled "Rights ". the performance of Ashley bought a deep-rooted understanding of current issues faced by the LGBTQIA community within India.
Ritu-porn-a aka Taposh Halder mesmerized the crowd with his charm and style. dressed in an elegant red gown with a high fashion head bow, he Walked the runway performing on Sia's Cheap Thrills and soon grooved the audience to Bollywood beats of yesteryears. His vibrant persona and Androgynous styling kept the audience captivated throughout his performances.
Mohini D'vi Aka Patruni Chidananda Sastry's performance went into the rebellion way soon he steps on to the stage. His Tranimal costume with an Indian touch of colours made people impress and growl. Wearing two Cheriyal masks as breast caps to outpour revolt and regression against sexism towards women with performance, Patruni soon jumped into diligent provocative songs. the performance started with "Bang Bang" followed by "Freedom", a song to celebrate the strike down of Article 377 and then "They Don't really care about us" by MJ to provocate the negligence about LGBTQIA people and ended up with a dance on "Born this way " by Gaga as an outcry for acceptance. His high adrenaline performance made the audience involve and resonate.
Famous Indian Beautician Javed performed as Javo. Started with a semi-classical performance of Bollywood music, Javo soon dipped into Bollywood. His yellow purple outfit and a perfect blend of makeup complimented his performance like magic. Vital expressions and balanced feminine expressions made the audience spellbound. Javo brought an effect of disillusioning gender with his camp makeover and giving the art a new look and feel.
There were also few featured performances by Alex Parish who performed Fish Drag and A Surprising Annonymous Drag. there was a representation of Faux Queens as well Including Tollywood movie start Aditi Mykal, International Gymnasts Meghana and Yoga practitioner Flux were also leading the way of Drag.a guest performance by well known Hip Hop Artist Harsha Komet took the vibe of the event to a next level. Founder of Humans of Nirvana, Bhagi Sravani addressed the crowd by the end of all performances and asked people to support equality and gender sensitization. the event was hosted by Susmita Choudhury a well-known Cosplayer in the country with the collaboration of Vybe, Mist, Flirt Diamonds,Firefly Community, Ants Cafe, Juxtapose and Nirlojyo.
the event ended with a vote of thanks by Patruni Sastry, thanking the venue host Hylife Brewing company for opening the doors to Drag, Rahul Das for his creative efforts with photography and music and Bhagi Sravani for her contribution . He believes that drag should be given an equal status of art like dance or theatre and also drag queens should be considered as a performer by cultural boards. while talking about the stigma city has towards drag culture he says that though there is a lot of groundwork to be done, we fight for the existence of drag and as long as we get to support the drag stays.
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