Eleven-time Grammy winner Pharrell Williams chose to unveil his latest capsule collection for Adidas at India's Festival of Color, delivering an important new message to men everywhere.

Have you ever tried to 'imagine' a certain scent?" Pharrell Williams asked me, trying to think of a better analogy, looking up at the ceiling: "You can think of the perfume bottle, but can your brain tell you what the perfume will smell like?" He has this "synesthesia," where audio information is transformed into visual images in his mind. That is, he can "see" sounds in color.

"Unless you also have empathy, it's really hard to explain," he said.

He's right. But this time I flew to Mumbai to meet him, and the sight here may have given me a better understanding of what he means by "empathy." On March 2, people were celebrating the annual Hindu Holi Festival, which symbolizes the beginning of spring and celebrates the victory of good over evil. In the streets, loudspeakers blared Indian pop songs, and thousands of people streamed in, splashing and smearing each other with colorful powder. Indigo, magenta and orange powder rose into mist, and acrid clouds obscured the sky.

"Fei Dong" is the first time to India, the schedule is very full. After all, the 44-year-old is a singer and rapper, a songwriter and producer of films and records, and a director of several charitable projects, including his own children's education nonprofit, From One Hand to Another.

He describes himself as "Mr. Magoo," the live-action version of the tiny cartoon character created by the UPA animation studio, which he has loved since childhood. "Mr. Magoo" is extremely short-sighted, so he gets into all kinds of funny situations, but every time he gets out of them with extraordinary luck. "

"I don't know what I'm doing every day," Pharrell says candidly. "I'm sitting here right now because of my gut - and my GPS. Sometimes it goes wrong, sometimes it works out."

Although his built-in "GPS" brought him into the music industry 25 years ago, it's hard to believe that Pharrell, as a studio singer, didn't top his career until 2014 with the globally talked-about number one single "Happy."

Before that, he was mainly responsible for music production behind the scenes. He and his friend Chad Hugo formed The music production duo The Neptunes in 1994, Helped define Britney Spears' "I'm A Slave 4 U," Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl," Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's. Influential voices of the new millennium like Hot.

Pharrell, who had just flown in from Los Angeles, was juggling shoots and interviews before adjusting to the 14-hour time difference and leaving for Delhi at the weekend.

His main reason for coming to India was to launch his Adidas Hu collection (Health Ultimatum) inspired by the Festival of Colour.

At the Taj Lands End Hotel in Bandra - arguably Mumbai's Malibu - on the western outskirts of Mumbai, he joined Bollywood star and Adidas ambassador Ranveer Singh for a private party to celebrate the festival and the unveiling of the new collection.

There, they jointly unveiled their latest Spring/Summer 2018 'Hu Holi' collection, which is available in Adidas stores in India and will be available worldwide on March 16. The vibrant new collection includes everything from the Blank Canvas tracksuit (€300), which is attractively white and throws coloured powder, to the sleek Stan Smith shoes (€90), as well as powder-dyed, unique shorts and jerseys (from €80). All items are not classified as men's or women's clothing.

"In terms of clothes, I think gender is becoming less important, and unisex clothing is driving that," he said of his observations. It is well known that "Philly" occasionally likes to wear women's clothes or accessories, especially his famous Chanel advertising image, but this is not to make any protest or statement.

In his words, he simply liked it. "But clothes aside," he continued, "gender issues are still important because we still need to push for gender equality." I think one of the best things about the Internet is that it can raise awareness about issues like women's rights or gender inequality."

Pharrell met model and designer Helen Lasichanh in 2005 and married five years ago. Now they have four children: 13-month-old triplets and a 9-year-old son named Rocket.

Before the Oscars, the first since Harvey Weinstein's multiple sexual assault allegations surfaced, I asked Pharrell what men should do first to achieve gender equality and end the pervasive sexual harassment in society.

"Be empathetic," he replied, "we'll never know what it's like to be a woman." Men's contribution to the creation of new life does not last very long, but women carry babies as long as nine months.

We'll never know what it was like for them to go to work during that time. I don't know if we could have done it with another man. Being a woman means a lot. They deserve recognition. And what we actually do."

With the help of Mimi Valdes, creative director and vice president of his production company I am Other, Pharrell worked on the film Hidden Figures, which was released last year.

The film, which later earned an Oscar nomination for Best picture, tells the story of three black female mathematicians who made crucial contributions to the founding of NASA during the Space Race era. His next project is a musical called "Atlantis," about the uptown neighborhood of Virginia Beach.

It's where Pharrell grew up, giving the multiple Grammy Award winner everything he is today. "The way the house is built, the music playing in the car, or any sound in the yard, is constantly bouncing and amplifying,"

He began to recall, "The music floating in the air, the humid summer in Virginia Beach." All these things make me who I am, influence our growth, and tell me how to 'see' music in this life."

On December 15, Pharrell, a member of the funk-rock trio NERD, released his trenchant new album No_One Ever Really Dies, which is far different from the blissed-out Happy.

"Do not Do not Do" pays tribute to Keith Scott, a middle-aged black man who was shot dead by police in 2016, and "Deep Down Body Thurst" uses lyrics to counter President Trump's plan for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

"As an American, you realize how lucky you are to be able to do so many different things as a black man," he said of his stance, "but it shouldn't be that way." I don't aspire to a life of walls or shit-boxes, but that's where I come from."

Now, Phillong's mission is to break down those barriers and at least encourage people to stop and think for a moment (" That's what art is for! "). He's pursuing his mission the way he knows best, one song at a time.