Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has pledged to help out 25,000-odd daily wage workers from the film industry whose lives have been badly hit by the ongoing national lockdown that has brought all filming activity in Bollywood to a grinding halt.
Recently bollywood star Akshay Kumar also joined Covid-19 fight donating Rs 25 cr to PM’s relief fund.
As the country is witnessing a 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of the virus, Salman’s contribution will aid the artistes of Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), said the body’s president BN Tiwari.
According to Tiwari when FWICE approached Salman Khan via his Being Human Foundation, his foundation came forward to help the daily wage workers and asked to give a count of the most affected workers from the association.After knowing about the 25,000 workers out of the five lakh workers,those are in dire need of financial help, Salman’s foundation said they will take care of those 25,000 artistes and asked for their account details so that money reached directly to their accounts.
Tiwari said FWICE has approached many actors and filmmakers to help the workers, but haven’t received any response yet from them,though Producer Mahaveer Jain has offered to provide help in terms of food and essential items.
Earlier in the week, filmmakers and actors, including Karan Johar, Taapsee Pannu, Ayushmann Khurrana, Kiara Advani, Rakul Preet Singh, Sidharth Malhotra, and Nitesh Tiwari came forward supporting to a new initiative aimed at helping the daily wage earners.
On March 18, the Producers Guild of India have also set up a relief fund for daily wage earners impacted by the shutdown of film, television and web productions amid the national lockdown.
According to the health ministry, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases climbed to 1139, with death toll climbing to 27.Maharashtra remained the worst-affected state with 203 cases and six deaths.
