Tata Cliq to P&G: 5 Examples of Brands Making Inclusion & Diversity a Priority

Atypical Advantage is a product of the 2020 lockdown. The motive was simple - to help Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) find jobs and generate livelihoods. Little did Vineet Saraiwala, the founder, realise that he was creating India’s largest inclusive platform for PwDs. 

Among the many job seekers he onboarded, there were performing artists too. Dancers, singers, comedians, models, magicians, motivational speakers, and more wanted a decent livelihood from their art. 

In the last one and a half years, the company has managed to build an entire ecosystem of corporate gigs, events, shows, etc to help performing artists. 

Seeing the pool of ‘Atypical’ talent, many large Indian brands have come forward and booked our artists on various occasions. 

Here are five brands that loved atypical artists. 

Tata Cliq Celebrates Autism Awareness Month 

The Indian e-commerce company, Tata Cliq had invited Pranav Bakshi and Karthik Krishnamurthy for a corporate gig to celebrate the autism awareness month between March 28 and April 3 this year. 

Pranav, who is India’s first model with autism, is a motivational speaker and graphic designer. He spoke about overcoming obstacles and ways to fight fear. His motivational talk even invited questions and praises from the employees of Tata Cliq. 

Meanwhile, Karthik captivated everyone with his beautiful voice. He is famously known for knowing over 2000 songs by heart and for his photogenic memory. He sang ‘O re piya’ originally sung by maestro Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. 

However, the highlight was a Kannada song that he sang. “This one is really difficult to perform, but he (Karthik) is doing great,” said one of the employees. 

A Magician, Singer and Artist Wow RPG Group 

CEAT’s RPG Group hired Sheetal Kimmatkar, India’s first magician with hearing impairment along with singer Ankita Patel with visual impairment and Anjan Satish, an award-winning artist who has cerebral palsy for their employment activity. 

Sheetal, who is also a football trainer, transported everyone back to their childhood days with various magic tricks. Anjan’s custom portrait-making activity for one of the employees was also no less than magic. He did live drawing and his near-perfect details impressed everyone. Meanwhile, Ankita grabbed everyone’s attention with old Hindi songs. 

“We saw a side of disabled artists that otherwise we would never have gotten a chance to see,” said one of their employees at the end of the event. 

Watch RPG’s testimonial here.

P&G Hired Singer & Comedian For Its Town Hall 

As part of its town hall meeting, P&G invited singer Karthik Krishnamurthy and comedian Abhay Sharma. The duo captivated the employees with their respective acts. 

Abhay is visually impaired. He made everyone laugh with his set on the shift from Work from Home to office post-pandemic waves. He also mimicked top celebrities and politicians. He is known for doing mimicry for cricket commentaries. In 2017, he even participated in the Great Indian Laughter Challenge. 

Karthik sang ‘Channa Meraya’ from ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’. His melodious rendition of this song and a few old Hindi movie songs too kept the audiences entertained. 

Barclays Celebrates International Day of Disabled Persons

International Day of Disabled Persons is celebrated every year on December 3 to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilise support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.

Barclays, a British multinational universal bank, marked the occasion by inviting singer Raj Jain, diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa at 5. 

Known for his deep and charming performance, Raj gave his first stage performance at 13 and since then he has performed on various platforms since then. He gave an enthralling performance for the Barclays employees in Chennai. Among the many songs he sang, he had also prepared the Tamil version of the popular Hindi song ‘Tumhi Ho’ as a surprise for the employees. Despite being a non-native speaker, he managed to ace the Tamil pronunciation. 

As expected, he received the most praise for his effort. 

When we posted the video on our handles, the video received a lot of love. 

Atypical Artists Scripted History With Its 1st Live Performance for UPL 

Due to the lockdown, all our performances have been virtual but just when we were looking for our first physical event, United Phosphorus Ltd approached us. 

While the artists and team at Atypical Advantage had jitters, we all were equally excited to see how the event would unfold and how it would affect our future performances. 

We had full faith in our singers, Ankita and Amit and as expected, they did a splendid job. Performing in front of a live audience is never easy but the way our singers handled it was nothing short of a laudable feat. 

A first is always special and this performance will forever be etched in our memories as we look forward to accomplishing more live events in the future. 

For any artist, their art brings them the greatest joy even though the act can be a nerve-wracking and panic-building experience. The nervousness is usually born out of the act’s anticipation rather than the actual performance. However, once the action begins - be it singing, dancing, stand-up, etc - the panic is swiftly replaced by satisfaction and joy. It is a beautiful experience for the audience too. 

And all these performances have proved this. 

This wouldn’t have been possible without the companies who are actively taking steps to build a more inclusive world. One does necessarily need to move mountains to bring a difference, a simple but dedicated step is all that is needed. 

You can do the same by booking our talented artists here. 

Atypical Advantage is India’s largest livelihood platform for Persons with Disabilities(PWD). Whether it is a singer looking for a show, a visual artist looking to sell their paintings, or job seekers with disabilities looking for career opportunities, it bridges the supply & demand side inefficiencies so that Persons with Disabilities can earn a dignified income. We have a large pool of 15,000+ talents with disabilities and have worked with 250+ corporates within a short span of 3 years. We were also featured on Shark Tank Season 2 and were declared the winner of the prestigious National Startup Award under the social impact category by the Union Government. For more information, visit our website here.