Now, naughty Arrah-Ballia dance in Gujarati flavour

Forty-year-old Ranjitsinh Chauhan alias Shashi Dancer is getting ready for a dance performance. He takes out of his bag the familiar accessories of his profession and puts them on, one after another. Everything seems normal until he picks up a bra, tight knickers, a short skirt, ghagra and a wig for women. It now becomes clear that he is no ordinary dancer.

He is part of a group of cross-dressing men who give dance performances at weddings across the state attired in the clothes of women. During the marriage seasons, they travel across the state not only to earn a livelihood but also for the love of dance. These are the ‘launda dancers’ of Gujarat — the lipstick men who dance to the tunes of popular Bollywood numbers of the 70s such as ‘Ye Mera Dil Pyar Ka Deewana’ and also recent hits such as ‘Chipka Le Fevicol Se.’

The phrase, ‘launda nautch’, may not have the same resonances in Gujarat as it has in the Bhojpuri-speaking districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, commonly lumped together as the ‘Arrah-Ballia belt’. In this vast area, the ‘launda dance’ means jokes and wolf-whistles at men dancing dressed as women, exuding gay sexuality.

Of course, the dancers are not gay nor are the members of the audience. Yet the ‘launda dance’ is sufficiently provocative to be considered vulgar by people outside the Arrah-Ballia belt in both UP and Bihar. For the wealthy and powerful in Arrah-Ballia belt, however, a ‘launda dance’ at family weddings is a must as it adds to prestige.

These dances have now spread to Gujarat where they have become sufficiently popular to keep ‘launda dancers’ busy throughout the marriage season.

Shashi – as Ranjitsinh wants to be called – lives in a decent row house and earns Rs20,000-Rs25,000 a month during the marriage seasons (which together last 6-8 months a year).

Shashi is the senior-most among launda dancers of Gujarat. He heads a group of more than 10 dancers who are currently booked to perform on every second day in different parts of the state.

Unlike the launda dancers of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, those of Gujarat don’t run the risk of being raped or of pins being pushed in their backs. However, even in Gujarat, they are often treated roughly and even stripped while dancing.

This is one of the reasons why Shashi uses tight knickers (often tied to the waist with strings) during a performance. The dancers are guaranteed no safeguards during performances.

“Very frequently we have to stop our performance half-way if people come onto the stage and start touching us all over the body. Recently, we had to stop during a performance in the city and had to leave without any payment,” Shashi said.

He further said that each dancer gets at least Rs500 per performance but the amount earned increases with baksheesh. “Launda dancing is all about baksheesh,” he said.

Baksheesh could be anything from Rs1000 to even Rs1 lakh.

But it is not easy for the dancers to earn good baksheesh. “We have to lure the men, sit in their laps and allow them to touch us, kiss them or allow them to kiss us. In return, we get baksheesh,” said another launda dancer, who requested anonymity. Interestingly, this dancer lives with his wife and two children.

When they are not on the job, the dancers return to the normal life of ordinary men. “I like wearing jeans and T-shirt at home,” the dancer said. Many of them drive autos for a living. Incidentally, most of these transgender dancers live in Ahmedabad and Vadodara.  The latest entrant to Shashi’s group is a 20-year-old boy who has taken to launda dancing not for the money but for love of dance.

“I love dancing, especially the dances of Helen in old films and those of Malaika in the new,” the boy dancer said on the condition of anonymity.

In the group, there are dancers of various ages – from young men in their 20s to middle-aged men in their 40s. Each one of them says he dances mainly for the love of dancing as a transgender. One launda dancer said he had nurtured dreams of dancing like Helen even as a child.

Pradipta Ray, the artist who performed the role of the launda dancer in the Hindi film ‘Gangs of Wasseypur-2’, talked to dna over phone from Kolkata. He said that launda dance had started from UP and Bihar but had become popular across the country. “It is a popular art form and is highly influenced by Hindi film songs. There is no training required to perform a launda dance,” he said.