The Mill, Technicolor Creative Studio recently shared that they had teamed up with multiple Grammy Awards-winning musician Ricky Kej on his latest creation – LiFE Song. The Mill and Kej collaborated with UNICEF India and its partnership platform, Generation Unlimited (known as YuWaah in India) to create an animated film for the song which promises to redefine the intersection of artistry and social impact.
With multiple Grammy Awards to his credit, Kej is a highly acclaimed name with his outstanding musical career and talent, where he seamlessly integrates elements of world music. The LiFE Song marks a significant collaboration between Ricky Kej, UNICEF India and The Mill India, bringing together their creative forces to deliver a sensory experience that transcends conventional boundaries. The project showcases the extraordinary talents of acclaimed musicians, Shankar Mahadevan, Stewart Copeland, Salim-Sulaiman, Farrah El Dibany, Abby V, Lonnie Park, and the New York Youth Symphony under the direction of Michael Repper.
The Mill created the animated characters of the Agents of Change – Chanu, Priya and Arjun, whose mission is to make our ways of life more sustainable for the future and take responsibility for our home planet.
“With mesmerising animation accompanying the soundtrack, the film eloquently depicts the journeys of three young protagonists, delving into pressing environmental and social issues of renewable energy, deforestation, and the critical imperative to address plastic waste in our oceans,” Kej remarked. “It underscores the universal importance of sustainability efforts as these are fundamental pillars of human progress and a brighter future for all. The agents of change depicted in LiFE Song carry this message through their actions every day.”
“At Technicolor, we are deeply committed to impacting the community positively. This is reflected across our CSR efforts, where our focus continues to be on education and ESG (Environment, Sustainability and Governance) principles,” said Technicolor India country head Biren Ghose. “LiFE Song is a presentation to the world that underscores our passion for achieving sustainability through visual storytelling; it is the perfect blend of creativity and technology. It is a real synergy of creativity and social goodwill to collaborate with Ricky Kej and UNICEF India to produce this special message in a spell-binding song.”
“Music is a powerful medium for communicating and bringing people together. UNICEF is happy to partner with Ricky Kej on the launch of the LiFE Song,” said UNICEF India representative Cynthia McCaffrey. “Climate change has profound implications for children and UNICEF advocates that together we all can catalyse positive change – for and with children. Ricky’s LiFE Song is a vibrant call to action for collective impact through individual actions, with children and young people as active partners and changemakers.”
LiFE Song was directed by The Mill team member Sachin Kadbane and VFX supervision was provided by Mahesh M S. It was produced by Shraddha U Sane and Anirudh Mohan Menon, with support from Devashish Malakar.
“For this project, we merged new methods of visual production real-time technologies along with the traditional animation production pipeline to achieve a level of visual fidelity and expressiveness that elevated the overall quality of character animation. Our in-house director and multiple awards-winning team worked closely with Ricky to develop, ideate, and then bring to life the characters as Agents of Change in the LiFE Song,” said The Mill executive director and LiFE Song executive producer RK Chand.
The LiFE Song made its debut on 2 December accompanied by a live concert at the Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi. Kej also played the LiFE Song live at the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) concert in Dubai on 6 December 2023.