This writer remembers coming across Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman during a trip to Bengaluru in the 2000s. The 1989 DC graphic series opened up a dark, mysterious labyrinth of stories away from the singularly  male perspective of superheroes. To learn about an openly gender-fluid person playing the role of Desire in the recent Hindi adaptation of the series by Audible has added to the excitement for the series.

While the cast includes some heavyweights like Manoj Bajpayee, Tabu, Vijay Verma among them, it was the casting of Sushant Divgikar which sparked considerable interest. Divgikar’s casting as Desire replicates the UK Audible decision to cast gender-fluid actor, Justin Vivian Bond for the same character. Like Vivian Bond, Divgikar also has a drag personality, Rani KoHEnur, who will perform on designer RuPaul’s upcoming DragCon stage in Los Angeles later in May.