This Sunday Hyderabad has seen its first kind “Drag show” which happened at Nirvana Café in Jubliee Hills, Madapur. Bought with a collaboration of Sas3’s dancing feet an artistic organization and supported by Mobbera foundation an LGBT pro NGO in Hyderabad saw three Hyderabadi drag queens perform in front of a house filled audience. Drag queens are performance artists, almost always male, who dress in women's clothing and often act with exaggerated femininity and in feminine gender roles with a primarily entertaining purpose. They often exaggerate make-up such as eyelashes for dramatic, comedic or satirical effect. Drag queens are closely associated with gay men and gay culture, but can be of any sexual orientation or gender identity. They vary widely by class, culture, and dedication, from professionals who star in films to people who try drag very occasionally.
The activity, which is called doing drag, has many motivations, from individual self-expression to mainstream performance. Drag queen activities among stage and street performers may include lip-syncing, live singing, dancing, roasting etc.
The show started with the first drag queen Maha Mohini D’vi, performed by Patruni Chidananda Sastry who grizzled the stage with a blue velvet saree and fluffy pink add on, used a contemporary touch to the Indian attire with a Fur Scarf and a loud green wig. The make-up was exaggerated with eyelashes and darker eye shaded to give away a beyond the conventional status. Mohini D’vi spilled the magic by dancing on the one of the Pride anthem “Born this way” by Lady gaga followed by a Singing performance of She-wolf of Shakira. The audience hooted the performance and the sprits were on high, with flowing felinity of the Drag artist. The performance ended with a Hindi Song sung by Mohini, creating a groove within the audience. Talking about the character Patruni Sastry said “Mohini D’vi is the goddess, she is over the top women whom you could see in Indian fictions, she is witty, and she dances and sings, she is an enchantress”.
The Next performance was by Mallika-e-Raks (Artists Wants to be Disguised) who bought the Begum era to Hyderabad, this performance was quite nawabi and for a while gave us a flavor of classic movies of Umrao Jaan and Mugal e Azam. The Final drag performance was by “Nutty Savitri” performer Anil Kohli who bought the core Telegu independent women image to his drag. Nutty roasted the audience with wit and velour and the audience went bonkers with the laugh bombs thrown by the performer. Anil who is a co-founder of Mobbera said “Nutty Savitri is a telugu born independent women, she loves to roast people and be sassy”. the event also saw some drag Kings dressed by Apoorva Gupta and a lip sync performance by Soumaya.
Talking about the idea Patruni Said “Drag is a performance art and should be encouraged and accepted, it’s the first time we are bringing drag to Hyderabad and Drag has the capability to be a part of mainstream Pub and Disco culture and a win win for both hoteling as well as performance industry “ who has also create “Hyderabad Drag club” a group which aims to host drag workshops , performances and many more ventures to bring up drag in Hyderabad
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