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Sushant Divgikr is a well-known Indian model, actor, singer, motivational speaker, drag queen, pageant director and more, who represented India at Mr Gay World 2014. While they (the pronouns they currently identify themselves with) didn’t win the title there, Sushant has an interesting offering for their fans currently – Audible Original The Sandman.
The artist, who is also known by their drag queen name Rani Ko-HE-Nur, has lent their voice to Desire in DC’s Audible Original The Sandman (Hindi). While we caught up with them and spoke about the audiobook, we also asked Sushant about their time on the Salman Khan-hosted reality show Bigg Boss and members of the queer appearing on reality shows like BB.
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Sushant Divgikr appeared in the eighth season of the controversial reality in 2014. They were evicted from Bigg Boss 8 on day 49 but that wasn’t the end for them. While chatting with them, we asked the former Mr Gay India whether reality shows – especially captivity reality shows, add contestants from the queer/LGBTQIA community for the sake of inclusion or to help them have a platform to speak to the world.
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Answering us, Sushant Divgikr said, “You know, different channels do it for different reasons.” Recalling their days on Bigg Boss 8 and why they said yes to the show, drag queen Rani Ko-HE-Nur said, “When people ask me, ‘Why did you do Bigg Boss?’ I say I was 23 and they were giving me a lot of money. It was amazing. I did it for the money. I’m not gonna lie. I was 23 and I was making a lot of money, so why would I not do it?”
Saying that they would have liked to win the show, but knew their chances were low as they were “not being disrespectful, loud or obnoxious.” Talking about their stay in the Bigg Boss 8 house, how that influenced them and how other queer contestants have been treated over the years on the show, they said, “If I hadn’t that (the reality show) I wouldn’t understand that that was me in 2014 or 2013 and this is me in 2022. Every individual and artist has a graph. I have understood that I have to push the boundaries, I have to break the glass ceiling because if I didn’t do it, the people that came before me…”
They continued, “If you have seen some of the shows which had queer people in them, they were insulted, teased, they were bullied, they were hit. But nobody did that to me in Bigg Boss, cause I didn’t give that vibe that if you touch I’m not going to give back. If you come in and attack me and expect me to be ‘Oh no, mujhe maaf karo, mujhe chood do’ I’m sorry. I have not been taught that. I have older brothers who have thought me how to fight and parents who taught me how to respect.”
Talking about Sushant Divgikr’s character in The Sandman, Desire is the third youngest of the Endless and the twin of Despair. With the anthropomorphic personification of its name, the character blends in effortlessly with whatever environment it finds itself in. It lives in the heart of a massive flesh-and-blood statue of itself, known as the Threshold.
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