Amitabh Bachchan isn’t done helping India as it continues to grapple with the deadly second wave of the coronavirus that has crippled the country’s healthcare system and left more than 200,000 dead.
After speaking out at the Vax Live fund-raiser that saw the likes of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in attendance, Bachchan also used his fame at the ‘Breathe For India’ fund-raiser that he stated has raised close to Rs400 million.
In his personal capacity, the ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ star also revealed he has donated a separate Rs150 million to help those desperate in the country for oxygen, medical supplies, hospital beds and more.
Bachchan’s revelation comes a day after the actor wrote about his family’s contributions during the country’s current COVID-19 crisis in retaliation to the actor being singled out and trolled online for supposedly not doing enough to help.
“So yesterday the 400 bed care centre at RakabGanj Gurudwara, in Delhi was inaugurated and the relief it shall be able to provide in the hour of need shall be difficult to enumerate. My contribution in that making, gives a sense of a deed that needed to be done, and soon it shall function under the care and guidance of a team of selected medical infrastructure, to bring relief to the extraneous conditions that we are struggling with,” Bachchan wrote on his blog, adding that 20 ventilators that he had ordered from overseas have arrived in Mumbai to help people there.
“The Oxygen Concentrators, another dire need, has also been put on a very fast track through suppliers from the overseas company’s , who have graciously under great pressure of depleting stocks managed to keep some for me,” he added, stating that 50 of them will be airlifted by May 15 to Delhi.
Bachchan is also working with a care centre in the Mumbai suburb of Juhu to provide medical care for 50 beds, while donating 1,000 packets of food to the poor. The actor has also adopted two children who are under the care of an orphanage but will be taken care of by Bachchan himself.
In a video shared on his Twitter platform and his blog, Bahchcan is seen reciting a poem penned by his father, Dr Harivansh Rai Bachchan, which he dedicated to the frontliners working tirelessly through India’s COVID-19 crisis.
“AND there are those colleagues and friends that have run into difficult times financially .. they too have been given funds to tide over some of the trouble they find themselves in. This is not trumpeting my ‘wares’…,” clarified Bachchan. “If at all it can be a motivation for many others to come forward and donat , the amount of misery that one hears and sees could be greatly reduced.”
He further added: “In this battle against this virus , many have contributed and continue to be resolved in more .. the mention in the information circles resounds with the 2 cr that I donated for the care Centre in Delhi for the moment .. but as days go by the figure of my personal contribution and donation shall be about 15 crore rupees.”
Bachchan has been speaking out about his charitable contributions after being singled out online. In his own words, the actor wrote: “Yes I do charity, but have ever believed it to be done, than spoken of.. it is embarrassing… The pressure though .. the every day abuse and the filth of distasteful comment has never been of attention to me or to the family .. we have seen it from time immemorial.”
