“Your name sounds familiar to me,” laughs actor Jim Sarbh at the start of the interview, indicating Neerja , which earned accolades for his character. Boasting of an impressive stint in Bollywood, the actor is now seen in a different avatar as a host for a docu series Planet Healers . The four-part series features eight environment friendly start-ups’ innovating ways to create a path for a sustainable tomorrow. These start-ups have created technology-led solutions for the environmental hazards we face. “I am an eco-friendly person and a vegetarian. I do have carbon foot prints because of travel but apart from that I am simple guy,” he shares. Excerpts from an interview:
Tell us about the project. ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
I was quite fascinated with the presentation of the project. The start-ups were interesting and environment is a subject that is close to my heart
. I am quite an animal and nature lover.
And, this was an opportunity to lend my voice to a subject that needs more attention. It is a model that works; It is possible to make a product and re-cycle waste into profit. Most people do not go in this direction because they think they cannot make any money out of it.
ADVERTISEMENT
These start-ups prove that not only can you help protect and conserve the environment but you can also make a perfectly functional product that you can sell.
What can the audience look forward to in the series?
Audience can look forward to four episodes tracking these eight start-ups located across the country and their journey. These start-ups have created a product that repurposes some form of waste.
Tell us about these start-ups
‘Afforest’ grows a maintenance-free forest in a tennis court size space in under 10 years. ‘Rudra’ converts plastic waste into poly fuel and ‘UrbanKisaan’ helps to grow hydrophonic fruits and vegetables at home so that you can see exactly what goes into your vegetables. ‘Absolute Water’ converts sewage water into water which can be even consumed. If only one can get rid of the taboo of drinking sewage water, which they do in many parts of the world! ‘Farm2Energy’ has a solution to use stubble burning world and ‘Chakr Innovation’ has created a first retro-fit emission control device for diesel generators which can capture over 90% of particulate matter emissions. I found the work done by Bengaluru-based Afforest really cool. It is fascinating to know that under 10 years they can create a maintenance-free forest. It takes between 5 to 10 years to get a forest up and going and once that is done, the forest takes care of itself. In these times of rapid urbanisation across India, if we can have these pockets of forest at the corner of every street, it provides much needed green lungs for urbanised choking cities.
Future projects?
2019 is a busy year; There is Wedding Guest , Made in Heaven (Amazon Prime) released on March 8 and Photograph .
(Planet Healers hosted by Jim Sarbh premièred on March 8 and airs every Friday at 7 pm on Discovery Channel and Discovery HD World.)