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Bollywood And Hollywood Unite For The Biggest Home-To-Home Concert; Raise Funds For COVID19

Several stars and celebrities from Hindi film industry will be uniting with stars from Hollywood, in a first, for a concert that aims to raise funds for the frontliners and those struggling due to the coronavirus pandemic. The concert titled ‘I For India’ is an initiative by GiveIndia Foundation, an NGO and donation platform that strives to alleviate poverty and help people through nonprofits.

After partnering with several organisations like Marico India Limited, Flipkart, Child Rights and You India, WWF India, Shadowfax India, redBus, Airbnb, MakeMyTrip, ActionAid Association, Helo Hindi, PepsiCo, NGO Sapna, UBS, Prop Tiger, makaan.com, Housing.com, Humsafar Trust, and Ashirvad Pipes to provide the poor with meals and necessities, GiveIndia has taken to the film fraternity to raise funds.

From 24 April to 1 May, the foundation announced a ‘Social For Good’ Live-athon Week which saw over 150 celebrities, singers, and musicians like Milind Soman, Mir Safir Ali, Mohan Kannan, and Kusha Kapila go live on Facebook to create awareness about the situation and raise funds while entertaining audiences. The ‘I For India’ collaborative concert set to happen on May 3 will be the grand finale to the ‘Social For Good’ Live-athon initiative.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The concert will see celebrities like AR Rahman, Abhishek Bachchan, Aditya Roy Kapur, Aishwarya Rai, Anil Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Arijit Singh, Alia Bhatt, Anoushka Shankar, Arjun Kapoor, Bhumi Pednekar, Diljit Dosanjh, Farah Khan, Farhan Akhtar and his band, rapper Divine, Dulquer Salmaan, Gulzar, Hrithik Roshan, Javed Akhtar, Karan Johar, Kareena Kapoor, Kartik Aaryan, Madhuri Dixit, philanthropist Neerja Birla, Parineeti Chopra, Pritam, Priyanka Chopra, Rana Daggubatti, Ranveer Singh, cricketer Rohit Sharma, tennis player Sania Mirza, Saif Ali Khan, Shabana Azmi, Shruti Haasan, Shreya Ghoshal, Twinkle Khanna, Varun Dhawan, Vidya Balan, cricketer Virat Kohli, Zoya Akhtar, and several others uniting with Hollywood personalities.

From Hollywood, Bryan Adams, Jack Black, the Jonas Brothers, Jay Sean, Kate Bosworth, Youtuber Lilly Singh, Mick Jagger, Mindy Kaling, Russell Peters, Sophie Turner, and Will Smith will be joining the concert.

While the fundraiser is already open for donations, the four-hour-long event will stream live on Facebook on May 3 at 7.30 pm IST. Viewers can tune into the ‘Facebook App India’ page to witness the concert while also contributing their bit to GiveIndia’s ‘India COVID Response Fund’. Produced by Fountainhead MKTG, it is anticipated to be one of the biggest virtual events to take place in India. Through this, they plan on helping out more number of transwomen, migrant workers, bus drivers, and daily wagers all over India.

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Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India said, “As a company, Facebook is committed to being an ally for India as the country fights the coronavirus outbreak. Our efforts so far have been focussed on providing access to accurate health information and supporting communities around the country. We recently launched Facebook Fundraisers, which allow people to leverage the full scale and power of the platform and their passion to direct resources to initiatives that can protect and save lives. We’re grateful to the creators, celebrities, and publishers participating in the ‘Social For Good’ Live-athon to drive the fundraisers. The ‘I for India’ concert is the grand finale of these efforts, featuring well-known artists and influencers.”

Atul Satija, CEO, GiveIndia, said, “The ‘I For India’ fundraiser concert, backed by a fabulous line up of stars, really feels like a nation coming together. Though we are isolated, we are united in our efforts to win this battle against COVID-19. We have already received tremendous support for our missions to provide humanitarian aid to those most affected by this crisis, particularly migrant workers and daily wagers. But with the concert going live on the world’s largest social media platform, it will help reach the millions of people who want to contribute to this war-like effort. We are extremely grateful to the organisers for putting their trust in us as the donation partner.”

GiveIndia is also associating with Common Roots, a social cause music festival, for spreading hope and positivity through music in these difficult times. About 25-30 performing artists would go live on Facebook and Instagram from 2 pm to 2 am, every Saturday in the month of May starting from 9th. Funds raised from these concerts will also go to the needy.

Meanwhile, the Bollywood and Hollywood industry have also been personally contributing to the various relief funds being raised. They have also been collaborating with various organisations to support the people in crisis.