Yet, not everyone is seized by an ability to look beyond themselves and their movies. Like John Abraham said in an interview for Daily Mail, “you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” widespread skepticism about Bollywood’s timed obsessions for social transformation paints the entire community in a single colour.
We went about looking for Bollywood celebrities who actually have been working consistently on issues they care passionately about. And yes, we found a (short) list. This isn’t an exhaustive one as we are still filtering through PR engines, but here is a starter on Bollywood celebrities who are looking good and doing even better.
Shabana Azmi
This yesteryear actress is well known for her social activism; she has raised her voice and expressed concern on a variety of issues. In 1989, she undertook a four-day march for communal harmony from New Delhi to Meerut along with Swami Agnivesh and Asghar Ali Engineer. Her focus over the years though has remained in the areas of child and women’s rights. She has fought for the stigma and injustice of those associated with AIDS.
She has also advocated the cause of slum dwellers, displaced Kashmiri Pandit migrants, and victims of the earthquake at Latur (Maharashtra) in the past. Shabana Azmi has been the Goodwill Ambassador of the UNPF as well as for the HIV/AIDS programmes for SAARC region.
Rahul Bose
The unconventional actor has done commendable work beyond cinema. The founder of the Group of Groups, a parent organisation of about 51 charitable organisations and NGO clusters in Mumbai, has been involved in various social causes. He was one of the first celebrities from Indian Bollywood space to become the Oxfam Global ambassador in 2007. He also founded another NGO named the Foundation that focuses on providing education for children from lower economic backgrounds in Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
He is associated with several other organisations like Akshara Centre, Breakthrough, Citizens of Justice and Peace, and the Teach for India movement. He has been extremely vocal for his support for his support for the Narmada Bachao Andolan.
Nandita Das
Nandita Das dons many hats apart from her career in acting, directing, she is also a writer and has always believed and worked for greater good of society, right from her choice of films to her living style. She co-founded Leapfrog, an advertising organization geared towards making socially conscious ad films. She has been giving philanthropy talks around the world about the impact of her films and the need for powerful social movements in India.
A graduate in Social Work from Delhi School of social work she also campaigned for child survival, against AIDS, and violence against women. She was appointed as the chairperson of the Children’s Film Society of India in 2009. Recently, as the face of the campaign ‘Dark is Beautiful’ she has been raising her voice against discrimination based on skin colour.
Gul Panag
Gul is known to be offbeat, be it her choice of movies, her interest in travel or her uninterrupted support for causes like gender equality, addiction awareness, education, employment and disaster management. Gul is part of the Col. Shamsher Singh Foundation and Gul 4 Change. She is been part of several projects such as Shraddha, a school that rehabilitates young autistic adults for numerous years, Shop For Change Fair Trade – a concern which promotes fair trade opportunities for poor farmers such as the cotton farmers of Telengana, Vidarbha and Kutch, and Green Comandos – a citizen action initiative to save the environment.
Gul recently established association with Sulabh International on World Health Day to work together to promote public health through sanitation. She has also worked on collecting used computers to install at village schools and begin basic computer literacy for the poor. She is actively studying, promoting and installing practical solar and rain harvesting systems.