When Glorious Luna entered the world of modelling six years ago, they found it difficult to get agencies to represent them, even though they continued to get work on their own. Gradually, they noticed a general reluctance among agencies to represent queer models. Last September, they decided to launch Current Management, India’s first talent management agency dedicated to the queer community in the modelling and entertainment industry, to fill this gap in the market.
It is “Of the Queers, By the Queers, For Everybody,” says the website.
“This is a statement, a mini-revolution of sorts,” says Luna, queer model and drag queen and one of the co-founders of the platform, adding that theirs is the first such platform in Asia—one that is queer-owned and represents only queer talents.
For many queer individuals, fashion has been more than just a passion or a profession—it is a way of celebrating their queerness and making a statement. However, most of them also find it difficult to find a place in the fields of fashion and entertainment.
“As a queer person, I used fashion as a language while growing up to express my queerness,” Luna adds, stressing that this initiative aims to claim the rightful space that queer models and artistes have had to give up to heteronormative and “normal-looking” people in the industry.
According to Luna, the idea came about because queer people were not being taken seriously in the industry and were being used by brands and publications largely as a token for showing how progressive and inclusive they are. Necessity drove Luna to embark on this novel endeavour.
As its website states, the agency aims to “revoke the traditional requirements of mainstream talent agencies” and “to connect INCLUSIVE brands with progressive individuals possessing stunning personalities.” It is presently representing 15 queer talents from across the spheres of modelling and performance art and has begun to get opportunities with brands like Dirty magazine, Tira Beauty, and Bumble.
How hotly-debated every life and career choice for individuals belonging to the queer community can be estimated from the long battles they continue to fight for queer relationships, same-sex marriages, and property rights, including the recent setback they faced in the wake of the Supreme Court of India’s verdict on same-sex marriage.
“When we discussed the fact that we are not being represented fairly, or being used only as tokenist inclusions, and Luna told me that Current Management was going to represent only queer people, I was totally down for it,” says Sushiru, a queer model. The idea of not being able to acquire strong and meaningful representation in fashion and the arts is a common thread among the narratives of most talents represented by Current Management.
The palpable atmosphere of stigma around queer relationships and expressions in India has created a series of hurdles along the journeys of queer individuals across employment segments in the country. The word “queer”—meaning “strange”—is what describes the community best. A feeling of being out of place and not fitting in is the space most queer persons spend a chunk of their lives in.
While many queer individuals feel out of place in the corporate workplace setup, fashion and other artistic pursuits have given them the freedom to truly embrace and express themselves. Fashion, fortunately, has been one of the very few queer-friendly employment spaces for the community.
“Queer people face a lot of problems for just being, feeling, thinking differently. I think it is time for the right representation for us and to belong to a family or community that is queer-made, queer-owned and for the queers,” shares DeeDeePls (him/ her), a queer performance artist who is presently represented by Current Management.
They rue the fact that job opportunities are drying up for the community just for being their true selves. For example, DeeDee feels that while actor Sushmita Sen did a brilliant job in her role of a strong transwoman in the JioCinema series Taali (2023), the producers should have considered casting a trans artist to play a trans character. “In terms of showbiz or modelling, producers want to hire models who look ‘normal’ or appeal to the audience. By doing so, they take away the opportunity from a queer person and the quality [that] they have,” they say.
Many of the represented talents agree that there is a gaping void in the market between the talent resource of queer persons and the jobs they are getting.
Jobs in the entertainment and showbiz industries are not only rare for queer aspirants but those being recruited are taken on solely for tokenist interest, leading to limited scope and greater competition. There is often a mismatch between skill sets and the assignment due to the strong anti-queer bias in the fashion industry.
“There was a gap in the market where queer people with talent were not getting jobs in the professional world. They were being taken on just for the sake of it, without any real attempt at inclusion,” says co-founder Nin Kala (she/ they), a queer model and activist, describing the inspiration behind Current Management.
According to Nin, the platform aims to represent “authentic and queer” artists, models, actors, multidisciplinary artists, and production houses.” The agency aims to increase its talent pool both in number and scope by including artists, writers, stylists, make-up artists, and others. It is a battle for visibility.
In such situations, representation in the form of powerful queer role models is becoming more and more relevant. Representation empowers the community and encourages young queer people to embrace their non-heteronormative identities. Rudradaman, a queer model represented by Current Management, cites their experience of working as a queer CSR employee at a corporate firm. “I like the fact that it is scouting queer talent and bringing out our potential,” they say, while remarking on the awkward stares they would get for dressing up and wearing earrings to the office.
While lamenting that queer people have suffered because they haven’t fitted into the boxes created by society, Rudradaman calls Current Management “harbingers of change” in a world that “is only looking at us and not inviting us.”