EXCLUSIVE: Initiative To Support Daily Wage Earners Was Rajkumar Hirani's Brain Child Reveals Screen Writer Pankaj Dubey
Rajkumar Hirani Initiated The Drive To Support Workers
Updated : April 08, 2020 02:38 PM ISTThe country is reeling under the coronavirus outbreak. It has been declared as a pandemic. The Bollywood industry is literally shut. The shootings are cancelled and releases are stalled, the promotions too are not happening. This is the time when the industry is suffering huge losses. Now, when the industry has no work, what will the daily wage earners do? There are so many who have been working tirelessly and are paid on a daily basis and now with no work at hand, there is no money also! There are many who want to go back to their hometown but with no transport, many are left hapless!
Recently, we have seen many celebrities including Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, Ekta Kapoor, Aamir Khan, Sanjay Dutt have come forward to contribute humongous amounts of money to the cause of providing relief to the daily wage earners.
And do you know who all are behind this initiative? Well, it was the brainchild of four people namely, director Rajkumar Hirani, Producer Mahaveer Jain, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and screenwriter and author Pankaj Dubey who also happens to be the spokesperson of the initiative.
In an exclusive conversation with us, Pankaj Dubey revealed, no one actually had the idea of what the lockdown might bring along with it. This issue became a talking point amongst Rajkumar Hirani, Mahaveer Jain and himself. Quipped he, “When the lockdown was announced by PM Narendra Modi, we thought it was absolutely essential a move to curb the Coronavirus pandemic in India. But at the same time, we were wary about the fact that this lockdown tenure can be extended. And if it indeed is extended, what could be the repercussions of it?”
He further went on to reveal how Mr Hirani was extremely anxious about the fate of the daily wage earners during this lockdown. Dubey further contended, “How will the daily wage earners, the workers and the ones who are needy fend for themselves? How will they survive? That was the big question. That’s when this became a constant topic of discussion between filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani, producer Mahaveer Jain and also in order to have a concrete result to the discussion, we also spoke to the Art of Living’s Sri Ravi Shankar. I was a part of the group as well. All three of them came up with an idea. The idea was to approach the film industry personalities so that we could gather some amount, do some crowdfunding and purchase some ration and distribute amongst the needy.”
EXCLUSIVE: Initiative To Support Daily Wage Earners Was Rajkumar Hirani's Brain Child Reveals Screen Writer Pankaj Dubey
He stated that this initiative didn’t just stay limited within the precincts of the film industry. “At that point in time, perhaps we were not aware that the lockdown will last for so many days. And we also didn’t know, not just from the film industry, people who don’t belong to the industry will also be contributing so generously as they did and now, this little initiative of ours has become a people’s movement. We have named it I Stand With Humanity and I have been vested on the responsibility to become the spokesperson of this entire movement.” Dubey elaborated.
Actor Sanjay Dutt has appreciated the entire initiative. He says, "It's so humbling to see that the #iStandWithHumanity initiative has reached out to over10 lakhs needy people across India with food/ration kits. Appreciate thousands of volunteers of The Art of Living Foundation & the support of friends from Bollywood."
He had earlier tweeted -
undefined src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" >I whole heartily support this noble initiative. Happy to contribute for this humanitarian cause. While staying safe at home I urge every one else also to contribute online - https://t.co/jxQllDNno7#iStandWithHumanity #ArtOfLiving #BMC #StayHomeStaySafe pic.twitter.com/X7xbLcMUFu
— Sanjay Dutt (@duttsanjay) March 26, 2020
During the initial phases when things were still being figured out, they had to come up with a concrete plan because they wanted to reach out beyond the Indian frontiers, he expressed. “We began with the campaign, people started contributing, we designed the entire campaign. We had the task of informing people about hygiene. We had to inform them about the entire idea and gradually it started growing. We decided on a caption, “Haath Milaa Sakte Nahi Par Saath Nibhaana Banta Hai”, and people were so responsive towards this that it was not just restricted to Maharashtra, it spread throughout the country and today we are functioning in 9 states and more than 3 Lakh 85 thousand people have been served ration. We have also visited Nepal, Srilanka and we served people there too.”
While today the initiative is being appreciated and lauded by all and sundry, the beginnings were a little problem-ridden, however, abrogating them wasn’t as difficult, “The only problem in executing this was the huge scale we were looking at and catering to so many people wouldn’t have been possible without the participation of The Art Of Living. Around 15 thousand trained volunteers with the foundation started working with us. We wanted the known personalities from the filmdom to create an awareness besides the donation part. This was almost a giveaway from them to all their fans. When Bollywood stepped in, there were many others who admired and loved them also started taking to the cause and the movement kept spreading and some more social-welfare organisations joined hands." Stated Dubey with utmost gratitude, evident in his voice.
Dubey concluded stating, “All of this has been done for the entire human race. We believe, we all have to try, make an endeavor, because if we really try, we’ll find there’s no need to cry and there’s no more hurt or sorrow. It is all about showing some love because it is something that doesn’t lie. As I said, we just have to take a gambit, begin trying, if we just try, we’ll see it is a state of ultimate bliss where there’s no space for fear or dread and that’s when we stop existing and start living.”
For more such updates news from the filmdom keep a close tab on Desimartini.com