The music video titled Kodaikanal Won’t by the Vettiver Collective, in association with Jhatkaa and Chennai rapper Sofia Ashraf was inspired by Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda, but addresses a much more serious concern.
Using catchy beats and lyrics, Kodaikanal Won’t brings up a decade-long fight that social activists have been waging against the conglomerate Unilever — in the case of mercury contamination in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, where a subsidiary of the company once had a thermometer plant.
Hindustan Unilever shut the factory in 2001 when environmental groups claimed tonnes of mercury-contaminated glass from the plant had been sold to a scrapdealer near the plant in Kodaikanal. Activists claimed the health of former workers have been adversely affected by exposure to mercury.
Archanaa Seker, a volunteer with Vettiver Collective, one of the key NGOs instrumental in getting the factory shut down, says that the main reason for making the video was to create a mass awareness.
“Most people don’t even know such a problem exists — they don’t understand the seriousness of the issue — that’s why we thought of making a music video to spread the message,” she says.
While most people are hesitant to take on a corporation such as Unilever, the team behind the video thought otherwise.
“We’ve been trying to get the message across to Paul Polman, the company’s chief executive for years now.” The team brought in Sofia Ashraf, a Chennai-based rapper to make the music video because, “She had worked on social awareness projects before and is a known name,” says Rathindran R. Prasad, the director of the video. They chose to use Nicki Minaj’s Anaconda as the tune for the song because of its attractive beat. Interestingly, Nicki has seen the video too and said “Wow”, when she saw the group’s efforts on Twitter.
