How a transgender pop band in India is winning hearts and increasing opportunities
6 Pack Band’s growing popularity – their cover of the Pharrell Williams hit Happy has been seen on YouTube more than 2 million times – is raising awareness of transgender rights in the country
Transgender people in India have traditionally been an invisible minority, seen only at traffic lights begging for alms, or blessing newlyweds and newborn babies.
But a pop band made up of six transgender women is on the soundtrack of the latest Bollywood blockbuster, showing that two years after a landmark judgement gave transgender people equal rights, they are more widely accepted, even as jobs are scarce and biases remain.
A song by 6 Pack Band features in the Salman Khan movie Sultan released last week. Their other songs, released earlier in the year, have also featured Bollywood stars and had millions of views on YouTube.
“Transgender people are worse off than other minorities in the country – they are not even on the radar,” says Ashish Patil, head of Y-Films, an arm of Bollywood production house Yash Raj Films, which put the band together.
“This was an effort to get the community front and centre, and get people talking. I decided, why not do it with song and dance, which are so integral to their tradition.”