My Choice, released as part of the impactful Vogue Empower initiative, has now reached 9,457,895 views, setting the news agenda in India, says Condé Nast International.
Directed by Homi Adajania, featuring Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone, the short film has 99 women from different fields coming together to send out one powerful message about empowering women.
Why 99 women? "I liked the idea of telling people I originally had 100 women planned but God said she was busy,” says Adajania. "In my family, my father is the only male in the house, but all of us have a voice," says Padukone. "I've always been allowed to be who I want to be. When you're not caged, when you don't succumb to expectation, that's when you're empowered." The aim of the Vogue Empower initiative, launched with the seventh anniversary issue, is to encourage people to think, talk and act in ways big or small on issues pertaining to women's empowerment. The message is simple: It starts with you.
Vogue Empower was launched in October of last year. In addition to a trilogy of short films that clocked up 26 million views across YouTube, cinema and television, the magazine also engaged opinion setters and influencers as ambassadors of empowerment. This included Aamir Khan in a radio campaign, Sudha Murthy who contributed towards cervical cancer screening and A R Rahman who dedicated an album to the cause. The magazine also had a 3 day fund raising Vogue Fest together with other charitable sales.
