Simply incredible
ANUJ KUMAR
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Although Anu Malhotra deserves credit for `Haath Se Haath Mila,' her music video on HIV/AIDS awareness goes off the target.
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SECTION WISE: Anu Malhotra.
In a scenario where life is all about loving your parents on the big screen and existence is being reduced to having "another person" in life on the small screen, there is still a ray of hope when a series like `Haath Se Haath Mila' gets high TRP ratings consistently. Produced by BBC World Service Trust and Doordarshan, the lady behind the series on AIDS/HIV awareness is Anu Malhotra. Known for making travel a money spinning and award-worthy genre with her series like `Indian Holiday' and `Namaste India,' Anu has also been credited with coining `Incredible India,' the punch line of the Indian Tourism Ministry.
Spreading awareness
The half-hour weekly show on DD1, `Haath Se... ' brings together top Bollywood stars and youth achievers called Yuva stars who work to raise HIV/AIDS awareness. Anu says the key is that the HIV messaging has been knit into the story of the yuva stars, making it effective. Talking of the seriousness the stars show for the series, Anu says they are briefed beforehand about the do's and don'ts and the profile of the youth achiever.
"In one story, a yuva star Hasina Kharbihih, who is working in the North-Eastern States, meets Fardeen Khan. In another, Viveik Oberoi meets Stanzin Dawa, a Ladakhi yuva star. Now Fardeen challenges Hasina to organise a rock concert in Shillong and to use the occasion to talk about HIV and AIDS. And when she manages to do so, he himself takes the stage."
But Fardeen is involved in an alleged drug case?
"Exactly, he used the stage to say that he had made mistakes in the past and doesn't want others to make similar mistakes. We kept the statement away from the media for a section of the media could splash it up," says Anu.
She says the series is also proving to be a shot in the arm for the yuva stars. "It has made their work a lot easier, they are recognised in the society and their work is well-accepted. Hasina told us that after Fardeen's visit there was a significant rise in the number of paan wallahs willing to stock condoms. Similarly Shanti, a yuva star, who is HIV-positive, found larger societal acceptance after Shilpa Shetty went to visit her. There were even cases where families were not supporting the yuva stars. Prachi Rathore, a 27-year-old yuva star from Jaipur was dissuaded by her father from counselling truck drivers. However, things changed for better when Raveena Tandon visited her."
Recently, Anu has also come up with a five-minute music video starring 50 film and television stars. Composed by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy and written by Javed Akhtar, the `Haath Se Haath Mila' song has been sung by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal. Music Today has brought out an album focussing on the song. " The effort is to bring about a behavioural change towards HIV-infected people." Ironically, except for the red ribbons, there is nothing in the video that makes it HIV/ AIDS centric. No patient-star interaction, no messaging, despite Anu having plenty of such footage. "It is deliberate. It is directed towards the MTV generation... cool and fashionable." She says there is a difference between the Doordarshan and MTV audience, the so called A, B and C-sections in TRP language.
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