Celebrities including singer Hariharan, chef Sanjeev Kapoor and singer Roopkumar Rathod have collaborated online to create a song titled "Chappa chappa afwaah chale". The number takes off from the evergreen hit "Chappa chappa charkha chale" that Hariharan had recorded with Suresh Wadkar for Gulzar's 1996 film "Maachis", and cautions people against COVID-19 rumours (afwaah).

Led by Hariharan, the band that calls themselves The Sur-Viralists, comprises celebrities from various fields including Sanjeev, chef Ranveer Brar, the young sibling duo of actor Karan and music producer Akshay Hariharan, marketing guru turned 'foodpreneur' Vinod G. Nair, and diamond merchant Punit Gupta.

The 5-minute track will release as a 1-minute promo video that has been self-shot by the band members in their homes.

The track will be released on April 4 across all social media platforms.

"When we started off with the project, we all felt that it was impossible to achieve. But thanks to the marvel of technology and app-based platforms, we did it," said Vinod G. Nair, who conceptualised the initiative.

"After this, we are now gearing up to do an even more ambitious project aimed at infotaining people as they battle the virus from their homes", he added.

Hariharan pointed out that in the current environment where everybody is under lockdown, the spread of rumours via social media is alarming. "We want to tell people to ignore rumours and to stop their friends and others from spreading them," he said.