Sofia Ashraf’s Kodaikanal Won’t, which deals with alleged mercury poisoning of former workers in Tamil Nadu town, attracts nearly 2m views on YouTube

A rapper whose protest song about corporate pollution in an idyllic hill town in southern India has dragged the issue into the spotlight says she is totally overwhelmed by its phenomenal success, which has prompted a personal response from the CEO of Unilever.

Sofia Ashraf’s skit Kodaikanal Won’t – named after a tourist resort in the hills of Tamil Nadu state that was contaminated by mercury from a thermometer factory – has been viewed nearly 2m times on YouTube.

A parody of the Nicki Minaj song Anaconda, the video features the 28-year-old, once known as the “burqa rapper”, dancing on a boat and sprawling on a train while demanding that Unilever clean up its “toxic shit”.



The factory at Kodaikanal, which was owned by Hindustan Unilever, closed in 2001. More than 1,000 former workers are alleged to have been affected by mercury poisoning, which can cause skin problems, sensory impairment and a lack of coordination.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kodaikanal Won’t by Sofia Ashraf

Ashraf was working at the advertisers Ogilvy & Mather when she was approached to do the video by the environmental campaigner Nityanand Jayaraman.

“After working in an ad agency, I developed a better understanding of how to use popular culture to reach a wider audience,” Ashraf said. “So for Kodaikanal Won’t I decided to piggyback on a popular song like Anaconda. It would attract Nicki Minaj fans, but also get the attention of those who hate her song.

“I wanted to spoof a song because I felt that when you use a popular tune, then people start paying attention to the lyrics, which was of utmost importance here.

“I’m not consciously trying to become a social activist rapper,” Ashraf said. “But everyone has a conscience, and I knew I had to do something, especially after I met the people affected by the mercury poisoning in Kodaikanal.

“Unilever has a squeaky-clean image on social media. We decided to hit them where it hurts most.”

The viral success of the video led to Unilever’s global head Paul Polman to defending the company on Twitter, saying the firm was “determined to solve” the environmental problems at Kodaikanal while speaking of the value of facts and not “false emotions”.

Paul Polman (@PaulPolman) Working actively solution kodai #UnileverPollutes for several years already Determined to solve.Need others too and facts not false emotions





Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kodaikanal is an idyllic tourist resort in the hills of Tamil Nadu state. Photograph: Thangaraj Kumaravel/flickr

Jayaraman said the song’s impact had vindicated his faith in social media: “Since 2001, when Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL, Unilever’s Indian subsidiary) was asked by the state pollution control board to shut down its mercury thermometer manufacturing plant in Kodaikanal, our demand that the multinational should clean up the mercury contamination and compensate and look after the 1,045 workers affected by mercury poisoning, hardly got any traction in mainstream media.

“Even Unilever ignored us. But Ashraf’s video has changed all that.”

The company denies that the thermometer plant adversely affected workers’ health, and defends the environmental clean-up it has undertaken in Kodaikanal after the closure of the factory.

But this stance is dismissed by Jayaraman. “Unilever is saying what any wrongdoer would,” he said. “The standard for mercury contamination they are using is for residential areas, whereas the plant was located near a watershed forest from which a river flows into a reservoir full of fish. Everyone knows that fish can easily become a source of deadly mercury poisoning.”

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Kodaikanal is not Ashraf’s first intervention for a social cause. In 2008, she riffed against Dow Chemicals on behalf of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, but the video didn’t gain as much traction as Kodaikanal Won’t, and the plight of Bhopal was already a much higher-profile issue in India.



“While working on the video, I did go through some conflict,” Ashraf admits. “Is it right for someone like me who uses air conditioners and a motorcar to campaign for the environment, I asked myself. But after interacting with activists I realised I have to do what I can do.”

Ashraf and her collaborators in the Vettiver Collective, a Chennai-based NGO, shot Kodaikanal Won’t in one day and none of the participants, including the director Rathindran R. Prasad and the professional dancers in saris, were paid.

“Everyone was so passionate about the cause. You could pick out anyone in the video and they would know about it, even the children,” said Ashraf. “That’s what made the video work. The protest was real, the angst was real.”

Unilever said the company would “never allow our employees to suffer ill-health because of their employment with us and not address it.

“Several independent studies, carried out by experts on mercury-related health complaints, concluded that our former employees were not harmed by working in our factory in Kodaikanal. Contrary to other claims, there is no authoritative medical data from any report showing that our operations at Kodaikanal caused illness.

“We have been striving to resolve these issues for over 14 years, and remain determined to do so.”

Additional reporting by Stacey Anderson