There was a time when Amitabh Bachchan’s 30-second appearance was enough to make people turn up with their kids at polio booths. Today he sits the entire day at Ranthambore to raise money for the conservation of tigers in the country as part of the NDTV initiative. As always though, he made his presence felt, as the channel claims it has managed to raise Rs.5.81 crores through the 12-hour long telethon. Celebrity association with causes has come a long way. Call it the Bachchan effect or Aamir’s influence, it is rubbing off on the young generation as well. Recently Zoya Akhtar scripted and directed a public service campaign against breast cancer for Ogaan Cancer Foundation. It has Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Ranbir Kapoor and Shahid Kapur talking about the dreaded disease. Zoya says she wanted to put her skill to a meaningful cause. “I see it as my responsibility towards the society. The key to fight against breast cancer is early detection, and research shows that fear is the number one obstacle that keeps women from taking precautionary measures and the fear includes inability to share the pain with the male members of the family, who are in some cases decision makers. I felt the presence of male celebrities will remind and urge women to take care of their health.”
Zoya says our men love their women but when it comes to their personal health they are either unaware or think it is not something they are supposed to do. “The actors we have in the announcement strongly feel about the women in their lives and I feel it will create the right kind of awareness in both the genders. I wanted to make it clear that it is not a woman-centric problem.”
Similarly, Ranbir Kapoor is supporting NDTV’s “Marks For Sports” initiative for the second consecutive year, says like his roles he is always careful about the cause that he endorses. “Academics and sports should go hand in hand, but unfortunately it is not happening in our schools and society at large. My parents knew the importance of sports and that’s why I was able to represent my school in football but not everybody is so lucky. The idea is to impress upon different education boards to include sports as part of the curriculum, and the results have been heartening,” says Ranbir.
