{"id":351082,"date":"2026-09-19T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T13:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/351082\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T13:12:10","slug":"big-hair-bigger-glamour-delhis-drag-queens-pay-tribute-to-dolly-parton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/351082\/","title":{"rendered":"Big hair, bigger glamour: Delhi\u2019s drag queens pay tribute to Dolly Parton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Electronic beats and heavy basslines had been thumping through Kitty Su at The LaLiT New Delhi for hours, as Delhi\u2019s queer crowd gathered for a night of music, drag and Dolly Parton. Upstairs, drag queens Lush Monsoon and Hash Brownie were getting ready for the night\u2019s tribute to the country icon, with the party eventually reaching its high point when the duo took the stage around 1 am.<\/p>\n

\"(L-R)(L-R) Drag queen Lush Monsoon with Keshav Suri and Hash Brownie<\/p>\n

For Lush, aka Aishwarya Ayushmaan, Dolly became a reference point only after she started doing drag. \u201cI came to Dolly much later, after I started doing drag. The big hair, glamour and over-the-top femininity are such a huge part of drag,\u201d she says. And while \u20189 to 5\u2019 may seem like the obvious pick, it has a very personal connection for Lush. \u201cI love \u20189 to 5\u2019 because it feels like my life; I\u2019m a human rights lawyer by day and a drag queen by night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hash Brownie, also known as Reggie Sandhu, arrived at the party carrying a lot more than her makeup kit. She had just returned from a three-day trip to Mumbai to find her drag prosthetics, including her breastplates and silicone padding, outside her room. She believes someone had entered the space while she was away. A few days later, her landlord\u2019s son asked her to start looking for another house. \u201cThey didn\u2019t confront me directly, but I knew they wouldn\u2019t accept my drag. I just wish I\u2019d had cameras at home,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Despite everything, she still made it to Kitty Su that night to perform for an ardent crowd. Her connection with Dolly, she says, grew stronger after learning more about the singer\u2019s philanthropy and history. \u201cI started believing in Dolly much more after I learnt about her history and all the charity work she does.\u201d And then there\u2019s the glamour \u2014 something Hash Brownie clearly appreciates. \u201cI love that she\u2019s so rich, but the only things she really brags about are her implants and wigs.<\/p>\n

And perhaps that was exactly the spirit of the night: big hair, bigger personalities and a room full of people letting themselves be exactly who they wanted to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Electronic beats and heavy basslines had been thumping through Kitty Su at The LaLiT New Delhi for hours,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[30608,10584,131155,131157,9,24,63,122,124,123,131156],"class_list":["post-351082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-dolly-parton","tag-drag-queens","tag-electronic-beats","tag-kitty-su","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-queer-crowd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}