Chennai: From harassment of women in the Tamil music industry to how gurus must treat their disciples, Chinmayi Sripada is known as someone who does not shy away from speaking her mind. “It comes from anger,” says the Tamil Nadu-based playback singer and dubbing artist when asked how she gathers the courage to speak up about social issues.
Days after questioning the power dynamics in the guru-shishya parampara (guru-disciple tradition), Sripada tells ThePrint, “It’s not just an Indian issue. It’s a Southeast Asia problem. If you watch this movie called Whiplash, it talks about it.”
Sripada, who was always vocal about social issues such as gender and caste recently grabbed the limelight after she posted a video questioning the guru-shishya parampara. This was a reaction to the apology issued by performer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan on 28 January after he faced backlash over a video of him slapping a man over a ‘bottle’. In his apology video, he claimed that this was a “personal matter between a teacher and his student”.
Following this, on 30 January, Sripada posted a video on her Instagram account in which she said, “One thing is that the parents will completely hand over the physical presence to the guru, to do as they please to the child in the name of teaching. So that children will not have a safe space to come to talk to their parents.”
Talking about her reasons for posting the video, she says, “Many students spoke about their gurus and the molestation they faced during the MeToo movement. But no one believed them. It is because of guru-shishya parampara only. That is why I posted the video.”
Sitting on a sofa in the reception area of Deep Skin Dialogues, a skin and hair treatment centre in Chennai’s Nungambakkam which she owns, Sripada, wearing a blue Kurti and her hair in a bun, can be seen handling customers’ phones. “Thanks ma’am; you can come,” she tells a customer who called seeking an appointment. In the middle of all of this, she finds time to discuss details regarding appointments with her receptionist.
“My only guru has been my mother. I didn’t learn from anybody else. But I have heard stories about gurus from others,” she tells ThePrint. About her relationship with her mother, Sripada says that discussion is “for another day”.
One of the most fearless voices from the Tamil industry during the MeToo movement, Sripada has never shied away from talking about social issues. She was one of the first celebrities to react after 11 men convicted in the 2002 Bilkis Bano case were greeted with garlands at a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) office upon their release from prison in August 2022 under the Gujarat government’s remission policy.
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‘Don’t regret speaking up’
Sripada, who has sung over 2,500 songs in multiple languages including Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Hindi made her debut when she was 15, singing the evergreen Tamil hit ‘Oru Deivam Thantha Poovae,’ an AR Rahman song in Mani Ratnam’s Kannathil Muthamittal.
Her notable songs include Tere Bina and Mayya from Guru (2007), Vaarayo Vaarayo from Aadhavan (2009), Titli from Chennai Express (2013), Sairat Jhala Ji from Sairat (2016) and Kaathale Kaathale from 96 (2018). She later forayed into dubbing and also into business with the launch of Deep Skin Dialogues, a skin and hair treatment centre for all genders.
At the height of the MeToo movement in India in 2018, Sripada had accused Tamil lyricist Vairamuthu of sexual harassment. She also expressed support for a woman who accused actor Radha Ravi of sexual assault. But the singer, who was actively dubbing at the time, claims she was shunned by the industry after she took a stand.
She made her comeback five years later, dubbing for Trisha’s character in the Tamil movie Leo in 2023.
However, Sripada says she got very little support during that time. “I can probably count on my left or right hand the people who have vocally supported (me). Women like Parvathy Thiruvothu or Rima Kallingal, Samantha, these are all people who have certain standing.”
According to Sripada, nothing has changed in the Tamil film industry since the MeToo movement. But she has no regrets about speaking up. “I knew what I was signing up for. I expected this. I am disappointed with society in general. About how people can talk about wanting to do the right thing and how morally and ethically they claim to be amazing. But actually, most people are morally repugnant,” she says.
She adds that the Tamil film and music industry still does not have an Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) and a POCSO unit which women or children can approach to register complaints about sexual harassment.
“I think I am the only person screaming about it all the time. At least one person is asking. People say I am saying the same thing. But has something happened? As adults, we have some kind of agency to go and report. We have some sort of support system,” she adds.
Asked how she gathers the courage to speak up, Sripada says with a smile: “It comes from anger.”
She adds that she was not always like this and that the move to Chennai from Mumbai, where she was born, changed her.
“I don’t have great experiences of growing up in Chennai as a single parent’s daughter. It’s extremely conservative. It’s extremely intrusive. Cruel also in some ways. While trying to rent a house, explain to every Tom, Dick, and Harry all about who is going to come to your house. Who are your relatives? Why isn’t there a father? Why did he leave you,” she tells ThePrint, adding that she did however encounter some good-natured landlords.
Asked about her relationship with the city now, she says, “It’s like having a toxic parent. It’s still your parent, but still toxic.” She adds the caveat that this is her own experience and may not be the same for everyone else.
The artist also recalls that she wasn’t vocal about issues in her younger years and that it was her marriage that brought the change.
“For people to find a voice and speak up it takes time. It takes a different worldview…I had to get married. It took a different family to understand that everything I went through was actually wrong. You think this is the world until you come out and see I have gone through this for 25 years and this is not normal. Then you speak up.”
Sripada says she has no filters when she reacts to issues, adding that somebody has to speak up.
“It’s an ongoing thing. I am still talking about stuff and what I have asked about will not get done overnight.”
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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Insipiratiin! Thanks to her for everything that she stands for!🤍🌻🙏