An anthem for acid attack survivors was released on Monday to mark Women’s Day.
Two organisations, From Mug To Mike and Atijeevan Foundation have come together to create the song, titled ‘Hum shakti hain.’
The video features singer Sunil Koshy and his students Nidhi Srivastava, Rakhi Pait Chowdhury, Bappaditya Roy, Dwarkanath Padmanabhan, Dr Jai Ganesh and Vishwajith Bharadwaj.
Vasanthi Hariprakash, media personality, is also featured in the video.
The tune was composed by Sunil and the lyrics were written by Sahil Sultanpuri.
Sunil and his wife Archana Hallikeri founded From Mug To Mike, a platform to train hobbyist singers, in 2013. They have trained about 8,000 singers so far.
In 2018, Sunil met Pragya Prasun, founder of Atijeevan Foundation and an acid-victim survivor, at an event, and her story inspired him to learn more about others like her.
The video, featuring nine survivors, shows them in their daily routine, working on arts and crafts, and singing. “It shows that they are as high-spirited as anyone else,” says Sunil.
The song was shot in 2020, before the lockdown. Studios closed soon after, and nothing happened for close to a year. The mixing was done eventually at singer Hariharan’s In The Mix Studios, Mumbai, in February this year.
About strength
Pragya Prasun liked the optimistic tone of the song. “It talks about the resilience of acid-attack survivors, and in fact about any woman who has faced trauma in her life,” she says.
Pragya, winner of Naari Shakti Puraskar National award from the President Ram Nath Kovind, faced an attack in 2006.
What’s ahead?
From Mug To Mike and Atijeevan Foundation plan to host talks where acid-attack survivors can share their stories. Sunil Koshy will also hold free music workshops for survivors.