COVID-19: Pianist Starts a Movement, Raises 8 Lakhs for Migrants

This Chennai Pianist started a movement and raised money for migrants!

Anil Srinivasan is a Chennai based Pianist.

(Photo: Vikram Venkateswaran)

What can you do, if you're stuck at home for 21 days?

Netflix and chill.

Try your hand at cooking. Then quickly give up.

Clean. Or at least, consider it.

Netflix and chill.

OR, you could start a movement, and raise Rs 8 lakhs (and counting) for migrant labourers. That's exactly what Anil Srinivasan, a Chennai based pianist, composer, educationist and entrepreneur did.

#PlayItForward

About a fortnight ago (26 March, 2020), Anil Srinivasan started an online campaign #PlayItForward, in which artists, musicians and performers from across the country would go Live for viewers on FB, Twitter or Instagram at 5:30 pm, every. single. day.

The campaign, aimed at collecting funds for migrant labourers, was channeled through Milaap, the crowdfunding program, and actioned by Bhoomika, a Chennai-based NGO that works for the elderly, and lately has also been working for the migrants.

Day 1 to Day 12

The response was phenomenal, both from the artists who volunteered readily, and contributors, who gave willingly to the crowdfunding campaign. Some of the actors who pitched in, in their own fields of expertise include:

• Andrea Jeremiah (playback singer)
• Sikkil Gurucharan (Carnatic vocalist)
• Aarya (Tamil film actor)
• Prasanna (actor, director, producer)
• Shaktisree Gopalan (playback singer)
• Vikram Sridhar (storyteller)
• Vedanth Bharadwaj (Sufi singer, composer)
• Janaki Sabesh (actor)
• Madhan Karky (lyricist)

Some of the celebrities took live questions on Twitter, while others sang and performed on Facebook and Instagram.

Anil Srinivasan aims to raise Rs 10 lakh for the elderly and the migrant labourers. He is now two lakhs short of the target.

Before Anil began the #PlayItForward campaign, he rallied together artists in a day-long virtual music festival. He called it #JanataCurfewOnlineFestival.

By the end of the day (22 March, 2020), this was the result:

I'll leave you with a couple of performances, that are bound to move you.