Hyderabad: When they first came together in 2011 as 11-year-olds, they called their band Zero Gravity.
“Be it my birthday or my parents’, we would always end up celebrating at an orphanage. As a kid, I would also ask my maid as to why their children weren’t enrolled in a school. And since the answer had always to do with lack of money, I grew up with the strong idea that I wanted to give back to the society,” says 15-year-old N.V. Prateek Naganatham.
“I took up Carnatic Classical music when I was 4 years old. So when I formed the band, I not only wanted to make music, but do something for the needy,” adds Prateek, who was also one of the finalists of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa (2011) and Bol Baby Bol (2013).
A year and a half ago, Zero Gravity was renamed FACE. The band comprises his sister and female vocalist Sharanya, drummer and percussionist Bindusara Ekshit, base guitarist Clement Francis, keyboard player Christopher Francis, lead vocalist and lead guitarist Prateek. The band has won three competitions in the past one year and 50 per cent of the money it makes from performances is diverted to deprived children. It has also been supporting three poor children and two HIV-affected children and helping them with food and medicines.
“The band has donated close to '1.3 lakh in charity in the past one and a half years,” says Suresh, Prateek’s father, mentor of the band.
Earlier this week, the band was present at the launch of the NGO Master Scholar, an NGO that supports Class X students from government schools. “The drop out rate of students from government schools is far greater after Class X and that’s the cause Master Scholar has taken up. We are part of the NGO and want to do our bit,” says Prateek, the brand ambassador of the NGO.
