Six Pack, India’s first transgender band brings pride to the Indian creative community by winning the Glass Grand Prix at the 63rd Cannes Festival of Creativity (Glass Lion).
This is the 1st time an Indian has won this prestigious award. The Six Pack Band was chosen from amongst thousands of other creative entries sent from all over the world.The Six pack band is India’s first transgender band, comprising of Fida, Ravina, Asha, Komal, Chandni &Bhavika, was curated and formed over a period of nine months. Shameer Tandon, curator and composer of the band, sent his team to every traffic signal and railway station to search for everyone and call them for an audition. After auditioning hundreds of people of the transgender community, where quite a few men had also turned up dressed as hijras (transgender), the band was selected. The journey has been magical for the band coming from such humbled backgrounds to working with the likes of Hrithik Roshan and Sonu Nigam. The win at Cannes acts like an icing on the cake for them.
There were four entries from India for the Grand Prix award from India and every campaign focused on a certain message. The Six Pack Band surpassed all of them and emerged winner. Their first music video, a cover of Pharell Williams’ known as ‘Hum Hain Happy’ crossed more 1.6 million views in less than a week and post that they have launched four more videos with the fifth video coming out on the 28th of June. They have already crossed 25 million views on their videos as well. This is not Six Pack’s 1st international recognition as they won India its first Webby Award, the Internet’s highest honor, in the Public Service and Activism category. The jury for the Webbys comprised of luminaries like Kevin Spacey, Jimmy Kimmel, Biz Stone and Shane Smith.
“Our journey started about a year ago when we set out on the traffic signals and railway stations searching for the right people to be part of this band. Our objective was to create awareness amongst the people through pop music in order to change the way people treat them. We are very happy that our relentless effort of a year has given us such a huge honor. We are going to take this as an opportunity and create more content in order to give the transgender community a place in the society that they deserve.” Said Mr. Shamir Tandon, Curator and Composer, Six Pack Band. Mr Tandon has worked very closely with lata mangeshkar , asha bhosle , late Jagjit singh shaan, shubha mudgal and international artists like boy band blue, Enrique Iglesias and launched multiple international artists like Norah Jones Robbie Williams in the Indian subcontinent.
“From an idea that started at a traffic signal to it now picking up what is considered the ultimate benchmark for judging creativity – we at Y-Films are honored & humbled to bring home India’s 1st Cannes Grand Prix Glass Lion. We are also thrilled to have partners like Brooke Bond Red Label & Mindshare who gave this ballsy idea wings”, said Mr. Ashish Patil, Producer of the Project & Brand Management and Talent Partnerships at Y-Films.
This marks a new revolutionary movement in India where in the transgender community is getting the recognition and respect that they deserve and with the success at Cannes we can only await their future releases and more laurels internationally that the Six Pack Band will win for India.