In the wake of the raging second wave of COVID-19 in India, Yash Raj Films head honcho Aditya Chopra has pledged to vaccinate the daily workers of the entire Hindi film industry.
YRF, in an statement, has urged the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray, to allow the company to purchase 30,000 COVID-19 vaccines and take care of all the expenses related to the immunisation programme for these workers.
Akshaye Widhani senior Vice President of YRF said in a statement, "With the film industry going through an unprecedented time, there is an urgent need to restart at the earliest so that thousands of workers can start earning their livelihood again and protect their families. Yash Raj Films, through The Yash Chopra Foundation, would like to offer its support in this regard."
It further adds, "We have sent a request to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra to allocate and allow us to purchase COVID-19 vaccines for 30,000 registered workers, who are members of the film industry's federation in Mumbai at the earliest."
"The Yash Chopra Foundation will bear all other costs too associated with vaccinating the workers such as raising awareness, transportation of workers and setting up the entire required infrastructure for the immunisation programme. We hope our kind request is approved which will enable our members to be safe and also get them back to work at the earliest," it reads. YRF further explained that once the vaccination will be done, the workers can resume their respective work and the industry may continue to function without any few.
"This vaccination set up is necessary to fight not only the deadly disease but also to fight against the dropping economy of the state. Let us all together join hands and eradicate this disease, poverty and unemployment from Maharashtra," the statement read. 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, Sidharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Mira Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar, among others have been using social media to amplify the voices of those in need.