Flying Souls, India’s First Inmate Rock Band

Meet the Flying Souls, India’s first inmate rock band from Tihar Jail, South Asia’s largest prison.

They just launched the first commercial music album produced behind bars.

Bismillah Geelani meets the ‘Jailhouse Rock’ band members inside the prison.

At a music release party in New Delhi, the members of the rock band, Flying Soul, gather for a group photo with some local dignitaries.

Holding copies of their debut album they all look excited and confident.

It could be anyone album launch but this is taking place inside South Asia’s largest prison.

Amongst it’s 10 thousand inmates are some of India’s most notorious and high profile prisoners.

The artists are all inmates. The organisers of the event are the prison authorities.

29-year old Shivani Vasan is one of the singers.

She has been in Tihar jail for four years. She is on trial for murder.

“It is all about destiny. Destiny takes people to unknown places, for me it was Tihar. Maybe because God wanted to give me a chance to fulfil my childhood dream.  I always wanted to become a singer, even my parents wished the same for me. It somehow didn’t happen outside but now I’m living my dream here.”

The album is tiled ‘Jane Anjane’ or ‘known and unknown’.

It has six songs all written and composed by the band members themselves. Love and separation are key themes, other songs talk about what life is like behind bars.

The album was recorded in a studio set up inside the jail.

Amit Saxena is the lead singer.

She has spent 9 years in jail also on murder charges but will soon be released.

“We devoted all our time to music because it offered an easy escape route. We live a very stressful life here, being away from home, missing our families and on top of all this the everyday problems with our cases. It’s really difficult and music gives us strength to cope with all this. And now it has also given us name and fame and changed our life in a way that I feel I’m already a star.”

The band members are the finalists of the Tihar Idol competition, a talent hunt modelled on the lines of a popular TV reality show, the Indian Idol.

Through auditions that continued for about three months, more than 350 inmates were selected to compete for music, singing, acting and dance categories.

A local music company Music One Records volunteered to train and groom the inmates through the competition. Naresh Bainsala is director of the group.

“I was immensely impressed by the talent pool in the prison. Their songs, lyrics and their acting and dancing skills filled me with confidence and I decided that I will do something bigger with them and the result is the music album we have released today.”

Bainsala says that a year- long close relationship with the Tihar inmates has given him a rare insight into the prison life and helped dispel many misconceptions.

“People think that once a person commits a crime he remains a criminal forever. But that’s not the right approach. A person may do something wrong on the spur of the moment but there’s always scope for change. I have seen people change and I believe it’s only a matter of time and opportunity. We gave these people a little chance and today they have proven themselves similarly if the society also opens up and accepts them again they won’t let it down. I hope this music album will help spread the message.”

Over the years, the authorities at Tihar have introduced a number of innovative reforms to prevent the inmates from turning into repeat offenders.

Lokesh Chandra, superintendent of Jail no 7 insists that organising such events is part of the reform agenda.

“Prison life is frustrating for the inmates. They remain depressed all the time. That’s why we’re holding this competition. In fact the inmates suggested that we should held something similar to the Indian Idol.  We thought it was a great idea from the point of view of our reform policy. There were risks involved but now we can say that it was a risk worth taking because it has transformed them completely, they have found a new person within themselves. It has made them aware of their creative side and most of them are now focussed on developing it further. Now they don’t think about ways of committing crimes but how they can unleash their creativity once they are out of the jail.”

The circumstances that landed these people behind the bars may vary from case to case.

But there’s one thing they all share in common: a strong urge to make a fresh start.

Music is now their first choice.

Dheeraj Sansi won Best Male Singer in the Tihar Idol competition.  He is on trial for an alleged kidnapping.

“I have decided to keep away from crime and criminals. I won’t even think of a crime ever again. Now I will follow the way the Tihar Idol has shown me and I will excel in it. I will be a star like I was in Tihar idol and I’m confident I can do that.”