Tamil News

Kangana Ranaut Donates 5 Lakhs To FEFSI; Gives 5 Lakhs To Daily Wagers Of Upcoming Film ‘Thalaivi’

By Aparajitha Balu
Kangana Ranaut At The 72nd Cannes Film Festival
Kangana Ranaut At The 72nd Cannes Film Festival

Kangana Ranaut is the latest to donate to the fund raised by the Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI) for the benefit of members and daily wage workers. The actress who was working on director Vijay‘s Thalaivi, a Tamil biopic on late AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, before the lockdown has also decided to pay the daily wagers of the film a sum of 5 lakh rupees.

Prior to this, the Panga star had contributed 25 lakhs to the PM-Cares Fund and distributed essentials to the families of daily wage workers.

The actor was in the news recently for a video she put out asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demolish platforms like Twitter, after the Twitter account of her sister and spokesperson Rangoli Chandel was blocked out for spreading hate.

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WATCH: Kangana Ranaut Wants PMO To Demolish Platforms Like Twitter; Wishes Everyone A ‘Happy Lockdown’

A few days back, actress Kajal Aggarwal had contributed 2 lakhs to the fund while also contributing to other funds – Corona Crisis Charity Fund, the PM-Cares Fund and the Maharashtra CM Fund, amounting to a total donation of 6 lakhs. The actress has also provided grains and food to people from her area of stay and is helping PETA in feeding, and adopted stray animals. Actor Vetri had also chipped in 1 lakh to FEFSI and 4 lakhs to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Relief Fund.

Actor Soori, producer Suresh Kamatchi, and stunt master and Secretary of Film and Television Producers’ Guild of South India Jaguar Thangam 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.

Actor-director-choreographer Raghava Lawrence had donated 50 lakhs to FEFSI along with other donations amounting to a total of 3 crores.

Previously, director Atlee (10 lakhs) and actors Ajith Kumar (1.275 crores) and Nayanthara (20 lakhs) had also contributed to FEFSI and other funds.

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, Vikram, 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.

RK Selvamani At The 'Udukai' Movie Launch
RK Selvamani At The ‘Udukai’ Movie Launch

It is noteworthy that several stars have also contributed to the fund raised towards artists of the South Indian Artistes’ Association/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 association. Vishal has also helped trans women and sanitation workers.

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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.

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.

Karunas at the Sangathalaivan Audio Launch
Karunas at the Sangathalaivan Audio Launch

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