Pride Month: Sushant Divgikr speaks on the discrimination, prejudice faced by artistes from LGBTQIA+ community

Sushant Divgkr/PR image

Sushant Divgikr, Mr Gay India 2014, is a known singer, actor, reality TV star, drag queen besides being a social media influencer, who also goes by the name of Rani KoHEnur. He has always been vocal about issues faced by the LGBTQIA+ community. Speaking to mid-day.com in an interview earlier, Sushant says that despite the community slowly but steadily making inroads in the entertainment industry, there is still a lot of discrimination and prejudice that artistes have to deal with.

"This is my 16th year in the entertainment industry and it's been an uphill task, not because I am mediocre or lack talent, but as a queer person, no one gives you time of day. Before social media, we would stand in queues to audition and not be rejected on the basis of our performance, but on the basis of our gender. Today because we fought for our place on the table, we are getting miniscule work. I have been the most booked live artist because I sing in 15 Indian languages in all genres, be it jazz, ballads, semi-classical, pop and Broadway. People enjoy it and I sing in two voices, it's a vocal range which two-three people in this country have. To add to it I do drag and dance, which is a like a full production. Now even though people know me they have preconceived notions about whether the audience will accept this," says Sushant.

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Sushant added that while women themselves have been subjected to various stereotypes in the country, it's far more difficult for the queer community. "A woman, just because of her gender has earned certain privileges which she doesn't have to think about while stepping out of the house. Let's not even get to heterosexual men who are the most privileged in our country. Men can walk into any institution and just by the function of being a man you will be considered higher than any other gender. People happen to be transgender but they are artistes first, which is completely disregarded."

What has also upset Sushant is that while OTT platforms are finally adding characters from the community to their scripts, even those roles are being played by heterosexual actors. "Tokenism has reached another level now where queer characters are created because OTT platforms like Amazon and Netflix have mandates where they have to create queer characters and normalise them, not sensationalise them. So they create the character and cast a heterosexual actor for the part, how we become inclusive then? They are creating that character so they don't lose their script. Then people say they are making an effort by creating a transgender character, you are not doing us a favour! You are creating the character so that your project is accepted by the OTT platform, at least tell the truth. We have to stop labeling art. Would anyone have the guts to label a stalwart like Asha Bhosle ji when she sung a cabaret number ‘Piya Tu Ab Toh Aaja'? If your heterosexuality is so fragile that it will break in the presence of a transgender person, you are not heterosexual in the first place," he says.

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Speaking about the awkward questions and comments he is still subjected to despite earning a name for himself today, Sushant says, "At auditions I have been asked questions like ‘Aap kis ke liye gaoge, aurat ke liye ya mard ke liye?' There is a reason why it's called playback singing, you are not showing my face. An entire campaign can be planned where we don't reveal the singer and do it only later. Why aren't we thinking out of the box. We wait for the West to do something like that and by then the novelty factor is lost. As someone who has a PR and advertising background myself, besides a Psychology degree, it's dumbing down to adhere to discrimination which is subtle but is there."

"We are known as the country of art and culture, where transgender have always played an important role. On reality shows I've been told, ‘Thode aur feathers pehno aap aur gay lagoge, aur taange dikhao, chamkile kapde pehno na.' If you don't give us any respect as an artiste how are we going to evolve?" Sushant Divgikr concludes.