In a day and age like ours, fighting a disease like cancer has taken on a scary nature. The number of organisations campaigning towards spreading awareness about the disease is reassuring and a need of the hour. But there still isn’t enough discussion about the same; some people are ignorant, others find it too morbid while many who know about it, find it too painful to talk about it.
Let’s Talk with Vinay, a YouTube talk show hosted by Vinay Bharadwaj, is trying to ignite discussion and awareness among the youth especially. Inviting well-known faces from film, music, entrepreneurship and other fields, the show sees them open up about their own experiences — watching loved ones and close friends battle the illness.
Vinay, a Singapore-based banker and fashion designer, went through a similar incident as well. The show has already shot 20 episodes in Bengaluru, 16 of which are on the YouTube channel. Now, he will be shooting close to 22 episodes in Chennai; featuring a few prominent people from the city like singers Srinivas, Karthik and Chinmayi, Sudha Raghunathan, actor Karthik Kumar, Sam Paul and others.
“Some of the biggest names come to share their stories and successes, and five minutes of the entire episode will be dedicated to their experiences on a loved one who has cancer,” says Vinay and adds, “It reveals two things — don’t take it lightly; and get regular checkups so you can treat it early.”
To spruce things up, making it aesthetically and technically appealing was a priority. It’s also region-specific, as it invites personalities from a city, making it more relatable to the local audience. “Chennai is a very rich and culturally-knowledgable city, and what better way to address an issue than involve arts, movies, music and more?” he explains. But, he adds that, while the people are local faces, the content isn’t — being in English, it can be understood by people across India and outside the country. The shooting starts tomorrow and the episodes will be released on the channel by end of June.
