- Shanuki de Alwis on her rap baila lockdown project ‘ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!’
From time immemorial, Sri Lanka has always been a hub of trade and diversity. This diversity has made Sri Lanka what it is today. It has influenced our culture, our architecture, our food, our language, which are all a blend of different traditions and cultures coming together to form one unique Sri Lankan whole.
Of late, we’ve seen a lot of insularities come into play based on our ethnoreligious identities, creating divides that are deepened by violent extremism and hate speech. The politicians of Sri Lanka have instigated and capitalised on this divide, widening it to fuel their own agendas. Sadly, this is something the Sri Lankan people are falling for, with hate speech and finger-pointing among different ethnoreligious communities beginning to blossom in very disturbing and violent forms.
We’ve lost sight of the fact that our strength is in our diversity, and our diversity is what makes us actually Sri Lankan. Look at our food alone, what would Sri Lanka be without its kokis (Portuguese), lamprais (Dutch), watalappan (Malay), or string hoppers (Indian)?
Against this unsettling backdrop, brand purpose consultant, talk show host, and advocate Shanuki de Alwis has embarked on a mission to remind Sri Lankans that our diversity is what makes us who we are, that it is our greatest strength, and how Sri Lanka is not, and never has been, a one-note or one-race nation. She does this through ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!, a music video that she has conceptualised and produced in collaboration with a host of musicians, producers, artists, celebrities, and influencers, encapsulating the diverse spirit of Sri Lanka both through the video itself and the team behind it.
Brunch chatted with Shanuki to learn more about ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!, from when she first conceptualised it to the final cut, and to talk about the spirit of diversity and inclusivity that Sri Lanka seems to have forgotten in recent times.
The seeds of ‘ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!’
To Shanuki, the ethnoreligious differences, hate speech, and finger-pointing among different communities is rubbish instigated and driven by political agendas to the point that we as a country have gotten so used to blaming minorities when something goes wrong that it has become something of a knee-jerk reaction. It is this form of thinking that she wants to work towards shifting by highlighting just how all our different cultures and traditions are so intrinsic to us – that removing even one of these cultures from the mix would throw everything about the Sri Lankan identity out of focus.
The idea for ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! was one that had been in Shanuki’s mind for years. As an advocate working on different projects and initiatives countering violent extremism and hate speech, she’d found that a lot of the “patriots and nationalists don’t receive the message we’re trying to share. They put up this barrier of ‘moderates are telling them what to do’, resulting in an ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality, which makes it difficult to build positive peacebuilding and reconciliation messaging”.
What becomes important then is being able to convey such messaging in a way that could be received not as a campaign of hate, but as something popular – something likeable, shareable, and downloadable. With Sri Lanka being a very musical and rhythmic nation, from baila at any occasion to papare at a cricket match to music at parties, Shanuki noticed that by and large, music didn’t come with a political message attached and this was an untapped power. It was this that gave birth to the idea of a music video celebrating the diversity of Sri Lanka and its people.
“The racists themselves don’t realise that they interact with other ethnicities in their day-to-day lives, from eating biryani to playing cricket on the road with their neighbours. It’s only when it comes to political things that people point fingers and blame each other,” Shanuki said, adding: “ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!’ is a reminder of what it means to be Sri Lankan to people who spout rubbish like ‘I am pureblood’. We go outside and boast to the world about our colour, our vibrancy, our food, our history, our sights and sounds, but I can’t imagine Sri Lanka being half as interesting if it was one-note, and with ‘ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!’, I wanted to say this in a way that would be received.”
The team behind ‘ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!’: A lesson in diversity
With the idea for ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! having been in her head for years, Shanuki decided it was time; but she lacked the skills, admitting freely that she is no artist or sound engineer. She was, however, blessed to work in the creative industry and have a wide circle of friends who are supremely talented. She had initially conceived ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! to be a live-action music video, and with this in mind, she reached out to her close friend actor, photographer, and filmmaker Ruvin De Silva to be the director. She wanted the video to be a raw, rap fusion video to be shot in his distinctive style. The plan was to travel around Sri Lanka and shoot different communities to illustrate how all the different people of Sri Lanka get along with each other even if they don’t realise it.
To bring the music production end of it together, Shanuki consulted with another close friend, music composer and sound engineer Nishan Daniel. Shanuki and Nishan had collaborated before on some of her other brainwaves, and Shanuki pitched the concept of a rap baila.
It was very important to Shanuki that ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! be trilingual. Part of Sri Lanka’s identity is its languages and with a message of peace and tolerance, it was important to be able to connect to all Sri Lankans. With Shanuki’s strengths lying in connecting with English audiences, to connect with audiences in Sinhala, Shanuki reached out to Sri Lankan musical artist Ravi Jay, who she had long admired for never leveraging disharmony, hate, and misogyny to sell his music.
To connect with the Tamil audiences, Shanuki looked for a female voice, sharing that as a bit of a feminist herself, the idea of Tamil female rapper was simply badass, and she found the perfect mascot of this badassery in rapper Rathya Atputharajah; she reached out to her, explained the concept, and asked if it was something she’d like to be a part of.
Another tool Shanuki decided to use to make ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!, something that broad audiences could connect with, was the power of recognition, and so she reached out to her circle of friends, asking celebrities and influencers if their likenesses could be used in the video to maximise the reach and power of the ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! message, getting personalities like Gehan Blok and Dino Corera (of Blok & Dino), Danu Innasithamby, Shifani Riffai, Pasan Ranaweera, Kapila Rasnayaka, and Eshan Dias to lend their influence to ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!
Leading ‘ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!’ through the third wave
With Sri Lanka in unofficial lockdown for an extended period, the plan for ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! had to change a bit, which was when the idea of an animated video took hold, with Ruvin recommending his friend, illustrator Ruwangi (Roo) Amarasinghe (known online as roobixcube) to bring the ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! concept to life, working with Kalath Warnakulasuriya of Kalaakuru to make the animated music video.
ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! happened entirely virtually, with Shanuki sharing that even as far as group calls went, there were only something like two group Zoom calls, one with Ruvin, Nishan, and Shanuki working on the concept and fleshing out the idea and story, and then another with Ruwangi and Kalath to talk about the animation. The rest happened on WhatsApp and email with individual phone calls as well.
The audio aspect of it saw Ravi Jay, Rathya, and Shanuki doing dummy recordings on their phones to get the details right before making a beeline to a studio when the travel restrictions were lifted for three days prior to Vesak in May, taking a day to record at Sooriya Village’s recording studio with percussion by Ruwan J. Chandradhipathi and additional vocals by Tharuka Nayanajith Gunarathne. Nishan then took the recordings home to work on mixing and mastering for the final track.
“So far, we still haven’t met as a group,” Shanuki shared. “For me, the process of collaborating on a music video at this scale was new. I’m not an artist but I had worked in advertising before, so I knew how to bring a campaign together. I expected it to be difficult because we couldn’t meet and wondered if I would be able to effectively communicate whatever was in my head without meeting face to face, but everyone was on the same page and at the same brainwave. It was very emotional because ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! has been in my head for so long. Working in advertising, I was used to stressing and working with teams who are sometimes not quite able to turn out exactly what is in your head, but this was different. Everyone knew what they were doing, and I didn’t have to worry. It was so cool because I didn’t really have to take control, but just enjoy what they were doing and keep my mouth open wide in awe; from Nishan coming back with the musicality based on what we had discussed to Ravi Jay and Rathya on the lyrics to Roo sharing the first drawing, it was just amazing. I was emotional through 90% of this project and just telling people how thrilled I was.”
Taking ‘ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!’ to infinity and beyond
At the time of our chat, ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! had only been online for about 24 hours, but Shanuki shared that she hopes it will become a platform unto itself, creating its own individual Facebook page, YouTube channel, and Instagram page for people to be able to share and appreciate ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! on.
“I don’t want ‘ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!’ to have any ownership,” Shanuki explained. “I’m not going to call it mine, and there is no copyright or ownership. It’s just something a bunch of Sri Lankans have got together and done, and anyone who wants to download the music and make their own videos or dances, etc. to it are welcome to do so. It’s not my property at all. I have just created a generic posting identity, which is how these pages came about. The beauty of social media is that it’s all free.”
Shanuki will be investing in advertising for ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! as well as introducing the track to iTunes and Spotify to reach the widest audience possible, especially people out of Colombo, explaining that she didn’t want ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! to simply resonate among people who share the same mindset that she does, but rather reach the people who are part and parcel of the problem that ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! is trying to address.
Shanuki shared that it is her hope that ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං! is something that people will be able to enjoy and understand Sri Lanka’s diversity through. “So many different things come together to create this tune. From kovil horns to hymns to church and temple bells, it just shows that if it was just one element and not the other, it wouldn’t sound half as good. It’s taken all these sounds to create this orchestral tune and that is what we as Sri Lankans are. We’re not one note or one instrument, and we need to remember and celebrate that fact. That is what I want the takeaway of ‘ஸ்ரீ Lanka මචං!’ to be.”
Facebook: https://fb.watch/6RbIs8LkGd/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/6uKCveI07OA
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CRgqImjFMth/?utm_medium=copy_link