Chinmayi Sripaada, the Indian playback singer and one of the forerunning voices of the MeToo Movement in south India, received positive response and support from her fans after she hosted a virtual music concert on Twitter on May 16.
Fans began to show solidarity with Chinmayi, who is currently facing a ban by the South Indian Cine, Television Artistes, and Dubbing Artistes Union soon after she came out in October 2018 about the sexual harassment she faced in the industry.
This woman is an angel. Noone deserves what she’s been put through for all these years. It is painful and enraging to see people in power still keep her off work. It is a crime to be deprive us all of this beautiful voice and her music. #WeWantChinmayiBack @Chinmayi ❤
— vendakkz (@zreenidhi) May 16, 2021
6 hours 33 minutes.
138 songs.
3000 max listeners.
95% of song requests covered. @Chinmayi 🙏🏻🙏🏻❤️#ChinmayiConcertSpaces #WeWantChinmayiBackPlease contribute for the amazing spaces session.
Zelle and PayPal – chinmayi@gmail.com— Sreenivas || ஸ்ரீநிவாஸ் (@i_sreenivas) May 16, 2021
Just tell me how Mr. Radharavi gets to work in the industry after all the garbage he has said….after admitting to swindling money from Nadigar Sangam.
How is he even in a position to ban someone when he should be the first person banned from d industry. #WeWantChinmayiBack
— Panadol (@Kichukii) May 16, 2021
Using the recently introduced feature which lets Twitter users have group audio conversations, the singer, who predominantly works in the south Indian film industries, conducted a music marathon where she accepted song requests from her fans. With over 2,000 people participating in the session that ran for more than six hours, Chinmayi also interacted with her fans and talked about her experiences in the part of MeToo Movement, her dubbing career, and her fondness for languages. Filmmakers, including PS Mithran and CS Amudhan, who supported her during the MeToo Movement, were also part of the session.
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Despite facing technical glitches and several reboots, the not-for-profit session witnessed listeners lending their support to her. Several called out the treatment and boycott that Chinmayi has been receiving from film industries after her involvement in calling out sexual harassers publicly.
In October 2018, as the MeToo Movement gained momentum in India, Chinmayi called out lyricist and poet Vairamuthu for harassing her. Since then, she has been been vocal about sexual harassments on social media. She has also been banned by dubbing union’s president and actor Radha Ravi in 2018 citing “non-payment of subscription fees”. She said she was singled out and terminated from the organisation for non-payment, though there were 95 other artists who had subscription fee dues.
Chinmayi thanked her fans for making her concert trend.
I am truly grateful to those who popped in to the Spaces yesterday. Sorry to those who were disappointed about Requests not getting accepted. I was genuinely not able to.
I didnt realize this became an India trend.Truly grateful for the kindness.
Much much love. pic.twitter.com/kXixVJYrY7— Chinmayi Sripaada (@Chinmayi) May 17, 2021