 "Twitter Spaces helps rediscover Chinmayi Sripada's voice, long stifled by trolls for levelling #MeToo allegations")
For some years now, singer, voice actor, and entrepreneur Chinmayi Sripada’s Twitter timeline has been a triggering space for her and survivors of sexual abuse. Followers assumed it was fine to take potshots at her for constantly speaking up about sexual harassment at the workplace, home, and elsewhere. It was the place where the trolls descended, demanding to know why she spoke up against lyricist Vairamuthu’s inappropriate behaviour after so long, among other things.
In the midst of all this din, her fans got to see few glimpses of the singer whose voice has reinvented itself with every other song. All that changed mid-May, when Sripada took part in two consecutive marathon Twitter Spaces sessions. Suddenly, her timeline was filled with music, voices of support, and a hashtag that trended nationally #WeWantChinmayiBack.
In between the songs that she sang for close to seven hours straight, Sripada also spoke about sexual harassment, boundaries, and other issues often swept under the carpet. These usually get debated inadequately and rarely with nuance within 240 characters on Twitter. And when the odd person tried to corner her or cut her off, her very vocal followers called out the said person publicly.
“I still can’t believe the sessions went off so well. It was impromptu, but the questions were very sensitive, and I never realised how time flew,” Chinmayi says of her debut 6.5-hour session on a Spaces that celebrated the singer in her. The following weekend, she decided to do an online concert, and encouraged people to donate to help fund the education of school students.
The hashtag was back with renewed vigour. It was as if the world had suddenly discovered what a good singer they had missed out listening to.
Personally, for Sripada, the Spaces she was part of, have cleansed her timeline. “It looks completely different. I always had a dedicated group of supporters, but the trolls were usually louder. This time, that changed,” she says.
People also got to see Sripada engage so effortlessly and patiently repeat the same song following a request, or explain something simple time and again. “I believe in kindness. One of the things learnt early on is that it is possible to respond to someone being sarcastic with kindness… after all, what do I lose?”
There is now a playlist doing the rounds of Twitter, drawing from the songs Sripada sang on Spaces. Responding to the admiration for her ability to sing for so long, Sripada said she was used to her mother sitting with her for long hours to ensure she sang. “Growing up, I would sing in the morning, and then once back from school, till 9 PM. On Spaces, since I was not on a physical stage, and there was not much movement, I conserved some energy. In any concert format, we feed off listeners, and vice-versa. But then, once the adrenalin wore off, I was beat the next day.”
Sripada has hosted one Spaces so far, and it had five editions, after the host was booted out by a Twitter bug. “There were no notes to refer to, there were bugs, but the audience made such a difference. I’ve been receiving requests to host a Spaces a week, but that would be too much, no?”
What the concerts did was also change the public perception of Sripada. They introduced a girl who breaks into gibberish or scolds herself when she misses a beat or lyric. A far cry from her perceived angry-young-woman avatar online.
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Sound recordist and designer Manoj YD, who hosted one of the sessions after Sripada got booted out, says the Spaces sessions changed the mindset of at least some. “They also donated, and realised that there is a positive side to Chinmayi, and that she’s not always angry,” he says.
Movie reviewer and entrepreneur Ranjani Krishnakumar, who has collaborated with Sripada in the past, said that people were able to interact with Sripada as a person, and not as a celebrity, on Spaces. “She was more like a friend singing on a Zoom call rather than a celebrity. She took questions, even the hard ones. It gave everyone the chance to understand her as a person, and see her vulnerable side too. In between a song, she broke down, gathered herself, and sang again. Else, they tend to think she is always wielding a sword,” she says.
Director CS Amudhan, one of the very few in the Tamil film industry to support Sripada, says, “A big proportion of the session seems to have gone in singing pop requests, which would have reminded people of her incandescent talent which many tend to forget amidst the din of allegations and counter allegations”.
“Twitter’s 240 characters are not usually enough to make a case, especially in complicated issues such as sexual harassment and patriarchy. Spaces must have given her a more elaborate platform to voice her story and respond to questions,” he adds.
But the question remains: did any of the hashtags get her work? Not as yet. Most of the industry continues to maintain silence.
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