As stars ‘truly’ shine

Olympian boxer Vijender Singh echoed the sentiment of the nation in his words, “We are a country of more than a billion people. If every individual donates just one rupee, it will be in excess of a billion (rupees).  I know money is not that important but at least we can show our respect for the families that lost a father, a son, a brother. We have to look after them, it’s our responsibility. They lost their lives while protecting us,” he aptly summed up before making the humble announcement of donating his one month’s salary towards the contribution for the families of the martyred CRPF personnel. 

When the dastardly terror attack in Pulwama shook the nation out of its slumber, emotions like revenge and hatred, and the expected lip service in memories of the brave hearts on social media followed. Fortunately, the token of gratitude tuned into meaningful tokens of gesture when the likes of cricketer Virender Sehwag offered to fund education of martyr’s children and Amitabh Bachchan announced Rs 5 lakh each for the 49 families affected.  Our very own Diljit Dosanjh did a one up and how? By donating as much as Rs 3 lakh. Even the Uri team in collaboration with their production house RSVP has donated Rs 1 crore to the Army Welfare Fund. 

As we further tune into the rightful noises over how the cash rich BCCI should donate atleast 5 cr out of its currency laden coffers,  we take a look at such similar recent gestures when the stars led by example.  

Sushant Singh Rajput—The young actor gets to walk away with all the brownie points. After donating 1 cr during the Kerala floods on the behest of one of his fans, the star donates Rs 1.25 cr for Nagaland flood relief.   

Akshay Kumar —   Known to be generous as much as known to be fit, Akshay Kumar has time and again donated handsomely to various causes. In one of such several instances, the actor donated 1.08 cr to the families of the 12 martyred CRPF jawans who were killed in Chhattisgarh’s Sukhma district in 2017. Not to forget the sum of Rs 90 lakhs for the drought-hit farmers of Maharashtra. 

Aamir Khan—Even if one were to not consider the causes that the actor takes up through his films, off-screen activism and television stints, he is known to be charitable enough as and when needed. The actor in 2013 donated Rs 25 lakh to the Uttarakhand flood victims and also initiated a campaign asking people to donate.  Moving on, the actor also donated Rs 11 lakh to Chief Minister’s water conservation programme. 

Shah Rukh Khan—Contradictory speculations to do with  the amount of money he owns, notwithstanding, the fact is that SRK received the prestigious UNESCO award for his kindness at the 20th UNESCO awards held in Germany in 2012. Last year Shah Rukh’s Meer Foundation donated Rs 21 lakh for Kerala Relief Fund. 

While of course many from the film industry have condemned the attack including Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra, Rishi Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Karan Johar, we are yet to see how they come forward and further from the tweets.

—Manpriya Singh