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Kajal Aggarwal Donates 6 Lakhs Towards Corona Relief

By Aparajitha Balu
Kajal Aggarwal At The Bridal Story Wedding Exhibition
Kajal Aggarwal At The Bridal Story Wedding Exhibition

Actress Kajal Aggarwal is the latest from the film fraternity to donate towards Corona relief funds raised by various organisations. The Comali star has chipped in 2 lakhs to the Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI) for the benefit of members and daily wage workers, 2 lakhs to the Corona Crisis Charity raised by the Telugu Film Industry, and 1 lakh each to the PM-Cares Fund and Maharashtra CM Fund.

The actress has also provided grains and food to people from her area of stay and is helping PETA in feeding and adopting stray animals.

Actor Vetri has chipped in 4 lakhs to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Relief Fund and 1 lakh to FEFSI.

Recently, actor Soori, producer Suresh Kamatchi, and stunt master and Secretary of Film and Television Producers’ Guild of South India Jaguar Thangam had donated rice bags and essentials to FEFSI and other organisations. Kalpathi S Aghoram‘s AGS Entertainment had donated 15 lakhs to FEFSI along with 50 lakhs to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Relief Fund, and Parvatii Nair donated 1 lakh each to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Relief Fund and PM-Cares Fund along with rice bags to FEFSI and the Cinema Press Association.

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

The South Indian Film Writers’ Association led by K Bhagyaraj had also contributed Rs. 50,000 each to the State and Central government funds.

Actor-director Raghava Lawrence had also contributed 3 crores towards relief funds. He has also pledged 25 lakhs towards the sanitation workers in Tamil Nadu with the salary he receives from his next film with 5-star Creations‘ S Kathiresan.

Previously, director Atlee (10 lakhs) and actors Ajith Kumar (1.275 crores) and Nayanthara (20 lakhs) had also contributed to various relief funds being raised.

On March 23 afternoon, the Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI) put out a statement concerning the livelihood of daily wage workers and employees of the South Indian film industries. It spoke of the troubles they are facing owing to the Coronavirus outbreak which has halted film shooting, and other work. The federation requested the film fraternity to donate money for the procurement of rice bags, a basic need, for employees. The statement had also mentioned that 15,000 members of the 25,000 member organisation comprise daily wage workers who live off the income earned from shooting sets every day.

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Several film personalities like Rajinikanth (50 lakhs), Kamal Haasan (10 lakhs), Dhanush (15 lakhs), Sivakarthikeyan (10 lakhs), Vijay Sethupathi (10 lakhs), Suriya, Karthi and their father Sivakumar (10 lakhs), Lalit Kumar’s Seven Screen Studio (10 lakhs), Jayam Ravi (5 lakhs), Udhayanidhi Stalin (10 lakhs), Aishwarya Rajesh (1 lakh), composer Anirudh Ravichander (2 lakhs), director Shankar (10 lakhs), Harish Kalyan (1 lakh), production house Sathya Jyothi Films (1 lakh), director P Vasu (1 lakh), Supreme Sundar (1 lakh) director Lokesh Kanagaraj (50k), Aadukalam Naren (25k), Chithra Lakshmanan (25k), Actress Sachu Kumari (10k), Karthik Subbaraj (1 lakh), cinematographer R Rathinavel (55k), actor-producers Kushboo and Sundar C (5 lakhs), actor Ponvannan (25k) and several other artists, PRs, producers, still photographers and journalists had made their monetary contributions.

The Tamil Film Press Association, the various fan associations of actors like Vijay, Suriya, Karthi, and Vijay Sethupathi, production houses Axess Film Factory, 11:11 Production, producer Dhanu, actors Radha Ravi, Manobala, directors Hari, Santhana Bharathi, and Sanjay Bharathi, Producer Kotapadi J Rajesh, Super Good Films and actor Jiiva, actor Yogi Babu, artists Shankar Krishnamoorthy, Jeeva Ravi, and several others had also made their contributions in kind by donating a certain amount of rice and dal bags.

RK Selvamani, President of FEFSI, announced that the fund has collected 2.40 crores and 2400 rice bags and stated that they further required 3.75 crores to feed all the 25,000 families of the daily wage workers and members. While he thanked all the stars for their contributions, he also expressed his displeasure at how the Tamil film industry wasn’t being as altruistic as the Telugu or Hindi film industry which has been making contributions in crores for daily wage workers.

“We have been giving out Rs 500 and 25 kilos of rice to daily wagers and members, but the amount collected so far is not sufficient for all the 25,000 families,” said RK Selvamani.

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Director RK Selvamani at Pulan Visaranai 2 Press Meet

It is noteworthy that several stars have also contributed to the fund raised towards artists of the Nadigar Sangam which includes producer Ishari K Ganesh, actors Karthi, Soori, Nasser, Ponvannan, SJ Suryah, Rohini, Sangeetha, and director Santhana Bharathi.

The latest to contribute to the fundraiser is Raghava Lawrence. After several other donations, he has provided 25 lakhs to the association.

Actors Vishal and Yogi Babu had also recently provided them with essentials. While the former provided provisions, gloves and masks, the latter provided rice bags to the associations. Vishal has also helped trans women and sanitation workers.

The Tamil Nadu government has also decided to provide members of the association with Rs. 1000 each after the appeal made by the Cinema Welfare Organisation. Since it’s the season for performing arts, drama and theatre artists are to be affected the most and have therefore received money and essentials.

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

Karunas MLA, former Vice President of the Nadigar Sangam, has given all the theatre artists from Madurai 2000kg rice, Rs. 250 worth of grocery items per person, and Rs. 500 per person. Meanwhile, Dindigul artists have received 250kg rice, Pudhukottai artists 1250kg rice and Thanjavur artists 500kg rice.

The association has also appealed once again to the film fraternity to contribute more to the fund given the number of artists they are required to support.

The Federation of Small Screen Technicians, Tamilnadu that had also put out a statement seeking financial assistance for actors, technicians, writers, and directors of the television industry has finally received 1 lakh from Udhayanidhi Stalin and bags of rice from actor Yogi Babu.

Several other film-related associations have also been receiving donations of various kinds.

Aparajitha Balu is a Alum at Silverscreen India, and can be reached by email at aparajitha@silverscreen.in