Popular pianist Anil Srinivasan was recently interviewed by a TV reporter at a music concert. The reporter mistook him for the late Mandolin Srinivas and further added that she had seen him play the Mandolin at many events. An irked Anil Srinivasan vented on Facebook.
An interesting and disturbing event to report. At the recently concluded concert I did with other musicians, a reporter from News7 (a newly launched Tamil news channel, or so it seems) interviewed all the playback singers one by one. When she came to me, she referred to me as “Mandolin Srinivasan”, which I thought was a slip-up, until she told me she could swear that she had seen me play the mandolin at many shows. I was both shocked and downright disgusted with the blatant disregard for details where it matters. Not to mention insensitivity. Of course, she followed it up (predictably) with – “a sound byte should be enough…he isn’t a cinema artiste” (within my earshot, to the cameraman). Some channel this is going to be.
Anil Srinivasan performed with musicians Haricharan Seshadri, Shweta Mohan, Aalaap Raju, Navin Chandar, Krishna Kishore and Saindhavi. Singer Haricharan commented on Anil Srinivasan’s post stating,
If I may add Anil ji, I think what they did was an invasion of privacy. They actually came into the dressing room upstairs where we were getting ready with a video camera. And they stayed right there inspite of me deliberately showing some disgust. Quite insensitive.
Image courtesy: Anil Srinivasan’s Facebook page
