COVID-19: Salman Khan To Extend Financial Support To 25,000 Daily Wage Workers Of The Film Industry

Salman Khan has come forward to provide financial aid to 25,000 daily wage earners from the film fraternity. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease and the nationwide 21-day lockdown has badly affected the livelihoods of the poorer sections of the society.

According to FWICE (Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees) president B N Tiwari, Salman Khan has reached out to the film body via his Being Human Foundation to bail out the workers who are in the financial crisis.

Tiwari told PTI, “Salman’s Being Human Foundation has come forward to help daily wage workers. They called us three days ago. We have about 5 lakh workers out of which 25,000 are in dire need of financial help. Being Human Foundation said they will take care of these workers on their own. They have asked for account details of these 25,000 workers as they want to ensure that money reaches them directly.”

In the meantime, many Bollywood celebrities including Karan Johar, Kiara Advani, Ayushmann Khurrana, Taapsee Pannu amongst others have pledged their support to 'I Stand With Humanity’ initiative. It has jointly been put forth by the International Association for Human Values, the Art of Living Foundation and the Indian Film and TV Industry. The noble cause is already providing 10 days-worth of food supplies and other essentials to the families of daily wage workers.

The Producers Guild of India too announced on March 18 that they would be setting up a relief fund for daily earning crew members of film, television and web productions. The cause was strongly pushed forward by filmmakers such as Sudhir Mishra, Vikramaditya Motwane and Anurag Kashyap.