I’ve been embroiled in controversies, but they were good controversies: RJ Malishka

A few weeks ago, RJ Malishka took part in the International Radio Festival at Future of Media Exhibition (FOMEX) 2024, held in Riyadh, where she was the only representative of radio from India. This is the third time that she was part of this festival, where she was a keynote speaker. In conversation with Adgully, RJ Malishka talks about her experience at the festival, makes a strong case for radio’s survival, expresses her angst against those trying to pull down radio, women empowerment, and much more.

What was the International Radio Festival all about?

The International Radio Festival has been around for quite a few years, where I have gone and represented radio in India twice – once in Switzerland and once in Milan, where radio people from all over the world come together and represent their countries. The tagline of the International Radio Festival is ‘Listen to what the world sounds like’. FOMEX, which is in its 2rd year, stands for Future of Media Exhibition, hence, there is a lot of futuristic media and technology on display during this exhibition. The hope is to take a full-fledged International Radio Festival to Saudi and hopefully in the near future bring it to India as well. I went in to talk about radio and its future. There were a couple of other colleagues from Switzerland, there was someone from England, Egypt, America, who presented what radio will look like, as well as the art of storytelling.

What was the response like and how was the entire experience?  

We took the festival to an international media exhibition with the knowledge that in the future a larger version of the International Radio Festival will be held in different parts of the world. It was my third time attending this festival, and I went there to tell the world about what radio can do and what a festival of that nature can do. Imagine people from all over the world, different kinds of radio, different genres of radio coming together and presenting their shows through, say, one particular radio station at the festival which is held over three days. For example, if it was hosted in India, we could have a radio station in Mumbai, such as Red FM, hosting radio shows from all over the world during the three days of the festival.

I think it is fabulous, as radio is one of our oldest and primary mediums of infotainment. I think we really need festivals of this nature. The response was tremendous.

How important was it for you to represent the radio fraternity?

I love radio, it is my first love. I believe that as a creative person and as an artist I should tap into everything. I am an actor, a social media person, and a lot of people say that I am also an activist. I sing – my rap song with Kaam Bhari is round the corner, there is an OTT platform for which I am shooting. However, having said that radio has always seen the change it literally brings. As a kid, when asked what I wanted to be, I remember I would always say that I wanted to change the world. It is great when you are actually able to do that. It doesn’t have to be a very large thing, even small things matter, or example, getting people to have a conversation about how a woman can’t be blamed for her attire if she is molested, or the first transgender toilet coming up the city, for which people donated money. These are a few of the million changes that I have seen happen through the radio medium. I have a great love for this medium, especially in this day and age.

In the post-pandemic times I have seen a lot of people, some even within the radio fraternity, dissing the medium. It breaks my heart to see that these people who have worked with the medium for the longest time, instead of figuring out the way to reinvent the medium, are downgrading the medium.

The world is moving towards podcasts, but you cannot figure out a way to give the radio medium a boost with such content, and instead are trying to pull it down. It is a huge no-no in my books. I recently saw a radio station doing a crazy PR stunt, wherein it said that the world is moving on and we are shutting down. But they didn’t even shut down. I think that was unnecessary, it’s like ‘jis thali me khana ussi mein ched karna wala’ space. These kinds of antics should be banned.

I was more fuelled by that to tell the world the importance of the medium and represent the fraternity, which I think is fabulous and will go on whether you believe in it or not. It will go on, but it might change shape and form. It needs a little bit of help, but that’s about it.

Do you think that storytelling and presentation have changed in radio over the years? How?

Yes, of course it has. There was a time when radio was a totally audio medium, you listened to it. Now, there are a lot of other media that can grab your attention –be it podcasts, music-on-the-go, YouTube. However, while the presentation has probably changed, there is a growing need to make the art of storytelling even better. Brevity is important in how you tell a story; very often it depends on how you make it more interesting to the ears, because there is no visual stimulation that matters. But I still believe that the rise of podcasts tells you how people are interested in listening and that not necessarily everything needs to be visual.

I remember a couple of songs which released on audio first and later on the video was released. This was done on purpose as they wanted people to ‘absorb’ the song. There is a lot of evidence to prove that everything visual doesn’t need to be stimulated, there are different kinds of stimulation that people are looking for. The storytelling and presentation have changed to be more appealing to a generation that really has a short attention span.

You have always been vocal about various social issues. Do you think it is necessary to voice one’s stand on bigger platforms like radio?

Of course, I think that is the only place you should do. I believe in several things, and one of them is that if you have the power to use your voice in any way, you must and you should. I have been embroiled in controversies, but they were good controversies. Primarily, I have done it in public interest as I have no political affiliation as such. The end goal for me has always been the betterment of the society. People have stood behind me because I have always questioned the intentions of the government and authorities. But I have also questioned the people – a case in point being the Atal Setu Flyover. We did a song around it because people were messing it up, dirtying it, stopping on it which could endanger lives.

There is a lot of backlash that you get and you should be ready for that. There have to be voices that are okay, absorbing some negative effect, as that is the way of the world today. Everyone has a voice, an opinion, there are fake Instagram accounts – so all you know is that people you know are trolling you with fake names. If your voice matters, it is essential that you speak out, even if it reaches a small percentage of the population.

Then there is, what we have been calling, the silent majority, who feel that the vocal part is the larger part of society. I think very often it is the vocal minority that is everywhere and are spreading hate. It really isn’t like that. So, I feel that whenever you bust a myth or you call something out or stand up for something, you not just break the chain at that moment, but you also open up a lot of other voices. You give a lot of people the power to say ‘oh hey! Let’s take this on’. Hence, it is completely necessary to be vocal about social issues.