Saying no to environmental racism

Continuing their fight against a corporate giant over pollution in Kodaikanal, a team has come up with a music video titled Racist Fever that features TM Krishna, Sofia Ashraf and Amrit Rao. The video will be launched on June 29 in Chennai.

Rathindran R Prasad, who directed the first video Kodaikanal Won’t is helming the second video as well. “I got a call from Nityanand Jayaraman, who has been closely working with the factory workers at Kodaikanal, saying that things didn’t work as promised by the company in Kodai and we need to make another music video for the social cause. He asked me to direct the video,” he says. Though the company has compensated the workers, the standard of the clean-up they have taken up is lesser than what they are supposed to do, laments Rathindran. “This is ‘Environmental Racism’. 

Through this campaign we demand the same standard that is applicable in developed countries. The video is going to be more powerful than the first video. We’ve shot this video completely in Kodaikanal. Shreyaas Krishna (of Aval fame) has captured the visuals aesthetically,” explains Rathindran. Rapper Sofia Ashraf, the face behind Kodaikanal Won’t, has sung a rap portion for the song as well. “The substandard clean-up done by the company is nothing but racism. It’s time for us to call them out and the whole world should know that India will no longer accept a mess like this — our lives are not less valuable than the lives of white people! We want the authorities to show respect and stop treating the people of Kodai as guinea pigs. Through the video, we are asking them to clean up the mess they have created and maintain international standards while doing it,” she says. The 2.5-minute music video is a fusion of Carnatic, rap and gaana. “It is, probably, easy to mobilise people when it comes to human lives, but tougher when it comes to the environment because it is not an imminent danger. But for this music video, around 300 workers came together to show solid support,” says Sofia.