I wanted to channel what I was feeling, says Farhan Akhtar

Actor, singersongwriter and film-maker Farhan Akhtar is all set to release his next single Why Couldn’t It Be Me, (part of his album Echoes) which he describes is “a powerful and emotive journey into the pain of grief and guilt”. While the album is an eclectic musical mix and lyrically focussed on love and relationships, the acoustic, Why Couldn’t It Be Me, brings an extra dimension to Farhan’s work.

A source close to the actor reveals, “Why Couldn’t It Be Me is Farhan’s latest endeavour to tackle the maltreatment of women. From mothers and fathers to children and siblings of victims, the pain is felt throughout a family and community.”

Farhan shares an incident that inspired him to pen down this song. Talking about it he says, “After the 2014 massacre in Peshawar in Pakistan, when the Taliban stormed into an army school and shot over 200 children — I read an article about a mother whose younger son hadn’t gone to school that day because he’d pretended to be sick. But his older sibling had gone and had been killed in the massacre. When I read that story I thought it must be such a strange dilemma for a young boy — ‘that could have been me in place of my brother’, he must have thought. So, that thought got me writing, and I wrote Why Couldn’t It Be Me from the perspective of that younger brother.” Farhan also explains that all this was possible because he wanted to focus on his music career. “Over the last two years I was just working on films non-stop. So, I felt that I needed some time out for myself, to reconnect with other things, to look at where my life’s at. I wanted to channel what I was feeling, and put it out there, just to share it with people. And I found that process very cathartic.”

Over the last two years I was just from working on films non-stop. So, I felt that I needed some time out for myself, to reconnect with other things. FARHAN AKHTAR, ACTOR-SINGER

PHOTO: ABHEET GIDWANI