Dragvanti©️

Drag Sastra has officially been launched at the Hyderabad Dance Festival. ✨ A moment that feels both surreal and emotional. This book carries my journey through drag, dance, queerness, tradition, performance, and identity — all the worlds I have constantly balanced and celebrated through my art. Launching Drag Sastra at a space dedicated to dance made it even more special, because dance was my first form of expression before drag became my voice to the world. Thank you to everyone who showed up, supported, encouraged, and believed in this vision. This is not just my story anymore — it now belongs to every person who dares to exist unapologetically. thank you @thevaibhavmodi @harsha.komet and @hyddancefestival for having me Here’s to documenting queer art, Indian performance traditions, and the power of transformation. 💜 #DragSastra #HyderabadDanceFestival #DragArtist

POV: Saree malfunction mid-spin in Ireland... But the crowd thought it was part of the dance 🫠✨💅 #ireland🍀 #dragqueenireland #desivibes #costumejewelry [Saree Drop, Desi Drag Queen, Bollywood Diva, Tikka Tease, SraDevi, Indian DragQueen, Dublin, Cork, Ireland, Indian]

A padam is often seen as longing. Separation. Devotion. Love waiting to return. But what happens when the body itself becomes the thing that is disappearing? In this reimagining of a traditional Bharatanatyam padam, I am exploring the fear that many trans people carry silently every single day — the fear of losing the life we fought so hard to become. For a trans person, transition is not just physical. It is emotional. Social. Economic. Spiritual. It is the rebuilding of a self after years of fragmentation. Every gesture, every hormone, every name, every stitch of clothing, every acceptance from society, every chance at livelihood — comes after struggle, survival, and often pain. And yet, all of it can feel terrifyingly fragile. This work imagines a moment where a fully transitioned trans person suddenly feels their autonomy slipping away. Their identity being erased. Their body no longer feeling safe. Their existence questioned overnight. The horror of watching yourself disappear while still being alive inside your own body. The grief here is not only about detransitioning physically. It is about being forced away from yourself. About systems, societies, politics, and violence making you feel like your truth can be revoked at any moment. What makes this even more devastating is that this is not just imagination anymore. For many trans people across the world right now, this fear is real. Rights are being questioned. Identities are being debated publicly. Access to healthcare, livelihood, dignity, and safety are constantly under attack. We are watching people being stripped of recognition, protection, and humanity. Through the language of Bharatanatyam, I wanted to transpose that pain into the emotional landscape of a padam — where viraha becomes dysphoria, where longing becomes survival, and where abhinaya becomes testimony. This is not just performance. This is mourning. This is resistance. This is the fear of losing the self we bled to become. #TransLivesMatter #Bharatanatyam #DragIsPolitical

POV: Dropping Dola Re Dola on an Irish crowd… and they wouldn’t stop screaming! 🔥🍀 Desi drag meets Irish energy = pure chaos ❤️‍🔥 [Dragvanti, Drag Queen, SraDevi, Ireland, Green, Dolare Dola, Aishwarya Rai, Madhuri Dixit, Bollywood, Telugu Drag Queen, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Desi Drag Queen]

Gold Fever Show @wildecork @queenmiagold @_indica_moon_ @toxic_xox_ @sradevi_dragqueen

From desi roots to Irish streets… still the sexiest thing walking 💃 #DesiDragQueen #DragInIreland #SexySexyMujheLogBole [Desi Drag Queen, Bollywood, 90s Forever, DragQueen, Ireland, Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Desiness, Drama, Drag Ireland]

There was something truly magical about holding this drag workshop as part of the Hyderabad Dance Festival—not just teaching steps, but creating a space where we could all pause, breathe, and rediscover the drag within ourselves. It wasn’t about perfection. It wasn’t about competition. It was about intimacy, expression, and the courage to show up exactly as we are. We laughed, we experimented, we struggled with heels and eyeliner, and somewhere between the music and the mirror, we found pieces of ourselves we had forgotten or never met before. That’s what drag does—it opens doors inside you. It reminds you that identity is not fixed, it’s fluid, playful, and powerful. As someone who has spent years performing drag on stages big and small, workshops like this feel deeply personal. Because every time a new person steps into drag—even for a moment—it expands the world a little more. It makes our community stronger, softer, and louder all at once. Thank you to everyone who trusted the process, who danced with vulnerability, and who allowed this to be an intimate, joyful space of rediscovery. This was not just a workshop. It was a reminder that drag is not only performance—it is healing, resistance, and celebration. #HyderabadDanceFestival #DragWorkshop #DragIsExpression #QueerJoy

We'll see you soon! Love, team For&Bi #transgender #transgenderIndia

The community partners for the Hyderabad Dance Festival. 🤝✨ Heartbeat of our local culture, these organizations help us move the festival forward. Thank you for being part of this journey! @communitie.festivals @communitie.events @dragvanti @Shantiswaroopgurukulam @minervauniversity 18-26 April | Hyderabad 🔗

Drag Sastra / Shoonyam A book release and film screening by Patruni Chidananda Sastry — expressionist dancer, drag performer, and creator of Kinnara Natyam, a practice that reimagines Indian classical forms through contemporary identity and performance. Drag Sastra positions drag not as an import, but as something deeply embedded within South Asian performance traditions — from classical frameworks to lived, embodied practices of transformation. Shoonyam, a silent dance film featuring 29 dancers, shifts into stillness — where the body becomes the only voice, and emptiness becomes a space of reflection. Together, the works move between theory and experience — asking what performance can become when identity, tradition, and expression are constantly in dialogue. As part of Rang-e-Hyderabad, this is an invitation to witness performance as both practice and provocation. — డ్రాగ్ శాస్త్ర / శూన్యం పాత్రుని చిదానంద శాస్త్రి — ఎక్స్‌ప్రెషనిస్ట్ నర్తకుడు, డ్రాగ్ ఆర్టిస్ట్, మరియు కిన్నర నట్యం సృష్టికర్త — భారతీయ శాస్త్రీయ నృత్యాన్ని ఆధునిక భావ వ్యక్తీకరణతో మళ్లీ ఆలోచించే కళాకారుడు. Drag Sastra దక్షిణాసియా ప్రదర్శన సంప్రదాయాలలోనే డ్రాగ్‌కు మూలాలు ఉన్నాయని ప్రతిపాదిస్తుంది — రూపాంతరం మరియు భావవ్యక్తీకరణను కొత్తగా అర్థం చేసుకునే ప్రయత్నం. Shoonyam 29 మంది నర్తకులతో రూపొందించిన నిశ్శబ్ద నృత్య చిత్రం — శరీరమే భాషగా మారే ఒక అనుభవం. ఈ రెండు కృతులు కలిసి — ప్రదర్శనను ఆలోచనగా, అనుభవంగా, మరియు ప్రశ్నగా నిలబెడతాయి. రంగ్-ఏ-హైదరాబాద్ భాగంగా, ఇది ఒక అనుభవం — చూడటానికి మాత్రమే కాదు, ఆలోచించడానికి. — 📍 The Stage, district150 by QUORUM 📅 26 April 2026 🕓 3:55 PM onwards 🎟️ Free Entry · Pay as you like Register on — Supported by Government of Telangana Hyderabad Dance Festival

Blue. Pink. Wrap. Tighten. Repeat. This is how the binary works — each loop a rule, each rule a restriction, until you can’t move, can’t breathe, can’t be. I sat on the floor, wrapping blue and pink yarn around my legs, feet, and hands. With every turn of the yarn, the bindings grew tighter. The higher it went, the less I could move, until even breathing felt like a negotiation. That’s what binary norms do: they don’t just label us, they legislate us. They restrain our choices, our rights, our bodies, our breath. Then I turned to the audience. I handed them scissors - “Cut the clause if you do not discriminate.” Cut it if you believe we all deserve to exist without permission. Cut it if you’ll stand up for yourself and for each other. Each snip was a choice: to own your role, to protect someone else, to reject inherited cages. To feel inclusion, not just preach it. So I asked you to cut it. If you don’t discriminate, cut the yarn. If you stand for us, cut the yarn. If you believe in a world beyond blue and pink, cut the yarn. This piece was my response to the Trans Amendment Act 2026. Laws can be yarn too — they can bind or they can be free. We decide which threads we keep, and which ones we cut together. The Trans Amendment Act 2026 is another thread. Cut the ties of society. Choose inclusion. They told us life comes in blue or pink. I wrapped myself in both until I couldn’t move. Then I asked you to set me free. Don’t let law become another layer of yarn. Your silence is a knot. Your voice is the scissors. #nonbinary #transrightsarehumanrights🏳️‍⚧️ #queerhyderabad #dragqueen #performanceart

Performance art is powerful because it uses the body as language — immediate, emotional, and impossible to ignore. For trans communities, performance art becomes resistance, a way to speak when policies try to define us and systems try to silence us. It allows us to process fear, anger, and hope in public, and to invite audiences into that truth. Trans Art Rising was created from this belief — that trans resistance can be embodied, witnessed, and shared through performance. Three artists stepped forward to reinterpret the consequences of the Trans Act, not just as a law on paper, but as lived realities carried in our bodies and stories. The participatory response reminded us that art can open conversations, build solidarity, and transform pain into collective strength. This reel is just a glimpse of that moment — where performance became resistance, and resistance became community. More reflections and more performances coming soon. 🎭✊✨ #TransArtRising #PerformanceArtAsResistance #TransResistance #ArtAsPolitical