In an emotional video that went viral on social media, musician Dilli Babu lamented about the lack of an organisation that offered financial aid to small-time, struggling musicians, who were left to survive on their own in the wake of the pandemic.
That video prompted singer Srinivas to bring together members of the music community to establish United Singers Charitable Trust. As part of the initiative, they have organised a first-of-its-kind virtual concert titled ‘Oru Kuralaai’ (In One Voice), a fund-raising event which will go live on September 12 at 6 pm, on Facebook.
A distinguished team of singers including Srinivas, Unnikrishnan, Sujatha Mohan, Rahul Nambiar, Ranjith Govind, Haricharan and Saindhavi, has come together for this six-hour-long concert, which also see their performances.
“I feel the entertainment industry is largely overlooked,” says singer Haricharan, also one of the trustees, “There are so many people working in the industry, besides the privileged lot. They all need to be outside for work. Since there was no sign of normalcy returning, we thought it was necessary to support people from our community.”
Funds raised through the concert are not restricted to musicians operating in Tamil cinema. Anyone from the music community — be it a Carnatic singer or an indie musician — can approach the organisers. “It’s for all, provided they are legitimate. We have a set of questions that they need to fill in; such as how much they earn, are they the sole breadwinner of the family and so on. We will be scrutinising the process to make sure it benefits those in dire need,” he says, adding that they hope to support over 10,000 families via ‘Oru Kuralaai’.
Putting together a virtual concert was something new for the organisers. But thanks to the COVID-19 situation and the new normal, musicians have been setting up home studios. “We have got used to it since March, as we were pushed to understand the technology behind broadcasting high quality videos,” says Haricharan.
Haricharan says that a host of singers, musicians such as Ilaiyaraaja, AR Rahman, Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan and Shreya Ghoshal to name a few, have showed their support and put forth their involvement. “They have selflessly come forward to put out content. It’s a beautiful coming together,” he says, adding that United Singers Charitable Trust is here to stay.
‘Oru Kuralaai’ will stream on United Singers Charitable Trust’s Facebook page. For details, check out https://www.facebook.com
/usctofficial/
