27th June: Tinder, the world’s most popular app for meeting new people collaborated with electronic music producer Ritviz and production house Jugaad Motion Pictures (best known for their work on Prateek Kuhad’s Cold/Mess music video and Ritviz’s Liggi) to create Raahi, a Pride anthem and music video to celebrate LGBTQIA+ identities and Pride at Home.
The music video features real people across the gender, sexuality, and gender expression spectrum, exploring the assertion of identity and the freedom to live authentically. As we know, the world’s largest and most important Pride events have been postponed, and everything looks and feels different this year. In the absence of any IRL Pride meetups, Tinder is committed to rallying social solidarity from home. Everyone deserves to be seen for who they are, meet someone new, and do so as their authentic selves.
Taru Kapoor, GM, India-Tinder and Match Group, on Pride and the music video “We are continuously making changes and improvements to help all members feel recognized and welcomed on Tinder, and this includes using our platform to tell real stories from members. When we think of what Pride means to us, it comes down to identity, and the freedom to live and love how you want. Everyone’s identity is valid, legitimate, and equal, and this drives all our decisions at Tinder. This video features real community members and displays how human connections are enduring and transcend community, physical, geographical, gender, and sexuality barriers. While the current circumstance is unprecedented, it is hard to ignore just how “all in it together” we really are, and our members are showing us how having to stay at home doesn’t mean disconnecting.”
Music producer Ritviz on creating Raahi as a celebration of Pride From Home, “For me, this was a no brainer. When Tinder & Jugaad approached us with the idea for the film, I couldn't say no. I'm humbled to be part of this celebration, and it feels amazing to be able to contribute in my own way.”
Director Dargai, Producer Dheer, and the team at Jugaad Motion Pictures on the collaboration, “During a time like this when self-love, self-esteem and confidence levels are running at an all-time low, this film was exceptionally important to us. It was our way of standing up, supporting, and being allies to the LGBTQIA+ community. Pride to us means to love and support each other. It’s a celebration as well as a form of resistance. We needed to represent the community in its most real form and tell real-life stories. Each member on our team operated from a space of deep empathy of the general human condition. We felt truly inspired by all the diverse sexual orientations and genders that the community encourages.
Going into this project, we knew it was going to be an immense challenge. To find real people from the community, to arrange cinematographers in their city, to conduct a virtual pan-India production from our homes! But fortunately, we were blessed with a super understanding and accommodating cast, who made daunting tasks a lot easier. Eventually, we fell in love with each of the cast members and felt a deep connection with each of them, even though we haven’t met any of them in person yet.”
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ABOUT TINDER
Tinder was introduced on a college campus in 2012 and is the world’s most popular app for meeting new people. It has been downloaded more than 340 million times and is available in 190 countries and 40+ languages. As of Q4 2019, Tinder had nearly 5.9 million subscribers and was the highest-grossing non-gaming app globally.
ABOUT RITVIZ
One of India’s most popular young electronic music producers, Ritviz is the son of a singer and a tabla-player and has grown up with a Hindustani music influence. Inspired by hip-hop in his youth, he started writing his own rap songs and sought to meld his various influences into a unique style of music. With two albums under his belt, he has amassed 1 million+ subscribers on his YouTube channel, which features 9 tracks topping 1 million views. He has supported international superstars Dua Lipa & Katy Perry on their maiden India concert in November 2019. Venturing out of music creation, Ritviz has also curated his own music and comedy festival in collaboration with Bacardi India, the YUV Fest, featuring names such as Seedhe Maut, SickFlip, Dorwin, Kenny Sebastian, Sumukhi Suresh, and Aadar Malik.
ABOUT DARGAI, DIRECTOR, RAAHI
An alumnus of the Berlinale Talents Program, Dar began her career in India teaching screenwriting and film appreciation at Whistling Woods International in Mumbai. Since then Dar has been writing and directing feature films, TV shows, commercials, short films, and music videos in India. Her first feature film titled "THREE AND A HALF" is co-produced by Anurag Kashyap is now streaming on Netflix Worldwide. The film has traveled to over 40 International Festivals and won 18 awards. Dar’s second film “NAMDEV BHAU: IN SEARCH OF SILENCE” world premiered at the Busan International Film Festival, had its UK premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and then played at MAMI (India Premier), Dharamshala International Film Festival (Opening Film), IFFI and had a North American premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival (US Premiere). Since then, she has directed clutter-breaking music videos with international music labels Spinnin Records, Sony Music, JioSaavn for renowned Indian artists like Ritviz [SAGE, LIGGI] Prateek Kuhad [COLD MESS] and Jasleen Royal. Along with critical acclaim, the music videos have garnered over 100 Million views on YouTube. She has developed and directed large scale award-winning international commercial campaigns for brands including Levi's, Volkswagen, Jio, Netflix, Tinder, Xiaomi, Stayfree among many others.
