Celebrity couple Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma have donated Rs20 million (Dh998,926) to their COVID-19 fund-raising campaign ‘In This Together’ in collaboration with crowdfunding platform Ketto. Their aim is to raise Rs70 million to help the country amid a deadly second wave of the pandemic.
“Virat and I have been hugely pained looking at the inexplicable suffering that people are going through and we hope that this fund will aid in our fight against the virus that we are all helplessly witnessing. We are praying for everyone’s safety. We hope that you join us in our prayers to save as many lives as possible because we are all in this together,” Sharma said in a video.
The Indian skipper also said: “We are confident that people will come forward to support fellow countrymen in crisis. We are in this together and we shall overcome this.”
‘In This Together’ will run for seven days on Ketto and the proceeds raised will be directed to ACT Grants, who is the implementation partner for this campaign. ACT has been extensively working towards providing oxygen, medical manpower, vaccination awareness and telemedicine facilities all through the pandemic and the amount raised by Sharma and Kohli will aid their work.
Gayatri Yadav, spokesperson ACT Grants says: “Having strong voices like Anushka and Virat help drive fund-raising efforts will go a long way towards helping us realise this goal. On behalf of India’s start-up ecosystem, ACT Grants is truly grateful to have them join this mission.”
The second wave of coronavirus has infected many people, and the number of COVID-19 positive cases has been rapidly rising.
Many Bollywood celebrities like Priyanka Chopra, Sonu Sood, Varun Dhawan, Akshay Kumar, and others have come forward to contribute to the Indian government in order to help aid people crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Amid the surge in cases, many stars like Katrina Kaif, Taapsee Pannu, Alia Bhatt, Mira Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar, among others have been using social media to amplify the voices of those in need.
Earlier, Yash Raj Films also stepped forward and pledged to vaccinate the daily workers of the entire Hindi film industry. YRF also launched the ‘Saathi’ initiative to provide financial support to all the daily wage workers in Bollywood.
