Director Atlee is the latest from the Indian film fraternity to donate towards Coronavirus Relief Funds. The director has chipped in a total of 10 lakhs, 5 lakhs for the Tamil Nadu Film Director’s Association and 5 lakhs for the Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI) for the benefit of members and daily wage workers.
Director #Atlee has donated 10 lakhs to help the members of the film fraternity! @Atlee_dir has donated 5 Lakhs for #FEFSI Union workers and 5 Lakhs for Tamil Nadu Film Director’s Association. pic.twitter.com/MPMKaGUcuU
— #BIGIL (@BigilOff) April 10, 2020
A few days back actors Ajith Kumar and Nayanthara had contributed to various funds.
Actor #ThalaAjith Has Donated the mentioned amount For #CoronaVirus Relief Fund..!
● PM Cares Fund: Rs 50 Lakhs
● CM Relief Fund: Rs 50 Lakhs
● FEFSI: Rs 25 Lakhs
● PRO Union : Rs 2.5 LakhsA D V E R T I S E M E N TGreat gesture by #Thala #AjithKumar #COVID2019 pic.twitter.com/y9rBpTbph6
— Jaya TV (@JayaTvOfficial) April 7, 2020
#FEFSI president #RKSelvamani Thanked #Nayanthara for donating 20 Lakhs to the union which will be more helpful in the current situation.#COVID2019 pic.twitter.com/6RC0GCD1jm
— Jaya TV (@JayaTvOfficial) April 4, 2020
On March 23 afternoon, the Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI) put out a statement concerning the livelihood of daily wage workers and employees of the South Indian film industries. It spoke of the troubles they are facing owing to the Coronavirus outbreak which has halted film shooting, and other work. The federation requested the film fraternity to donate money for the procurement of rice bags, a basic need, for employees. The statement had also mentioned that 15,000 members of the 25,000 member organisation comprise daily wage workers who live off the income earned from shooting sets every day.
Several film personalities like Rajinikanth (50 lakhs), Kamal Haasan (10 lakhs), Dhanush (15 lakhs), Sivakarthikeyan (10 lakhs), Vijay Sethupathi (10 lakhs), Suriya, Karthi and their father Sivakumar (10 lakhs), Lalit Kumar’s Seven Screen Studio (10 lakhs), Jayam Ravi (5 lakhs), Udhayanidhi Stalin (10 lakhs), Aishwarya Rajesh (1 lakh), composer Anirudh Ravichander (2 lakhs), director Shankar (10 lakhs), Harish Kalyan (1 lakh), production house Sathya Jyothi Films (1 lakh), director P Vasu (1 lakh), Supreme Sundar (1 lakh) director Lokesh Kanagaraj (50k), Aadukalam Naren (25k), Chithra Lakshmanan (25k), Actress Sachu Kumari (10k), Karthik Subbaraj (1 lakh), cinematographer R Rathinavel (55k), actor-producers Kushboo and Sundar C (5 lakhs), actor Ponvannan (25k) and several other artists, PRs, producers, still photographers and journalists had made their monetary contributions.
The Tamil Film Press Association, the Salem head of ‘Vijay Makkal Iyakkam’, production houses Axess Film Factory, 11:11 Production, producer Dhanu, actors Radha Ravi, Manobala, directors Hari, Santhana Bharathi, and Sanjay Bharathi, Producer Kotapadi J Rajesh, Super Good Films and actor Jiiva, actor Yogi Babu, artists Shankar Krishnamoorthy, Jeeva Ravi, and several others had also made their contributions in kind by donating a certain amount of rice and dal bags.
#FEFSI Contributions By Celebrities, Directors & Producers 👇 pic.twitter.com/h3kDJWWaTq
— VIJAY ANNA Fan (@MathaiyanVijay) March 24, 2020
Last week, RK Selvamani, President of FEFSI, had put out a statement revealing the amount and rice bags collected until April 2. While he thanked all the stars for their contributions, he also expressed his displeasure at how the Tamil film industry wasn’t being as altruistic as the Telugu or Hindi film industry which has been making contributions in crores for daily wage workers.
While Salman Khan has contributed 50 crores to the Bollywood film industry workers, Megastar Chiranjeevi, who recently joined Twitter, has contributed 1 crore for the Tollywood film industry daily wage workers.
.@BeingSalmanKhan showed his unconditional love and charity for the people. Extended financial help to 25,000 daily wage workers of Bollywood, amount will be credited to their bank accounts
#BeingConsistentIsBeingHuman #LetsFightCorona pic.twitter.com/dzFCHkWDsW— BARaju (@baraju_SuperHit) March 30, 2020
This afternoon, he announced that the fund has collected 2.40 crores and 2400 rice bags and stated that they further required 3.75 crores to feed all the 25,000 families of the daily wage workers and members.
“We have been giving out Rs 500 and 25 kilos of rice to daily wagers and members, but the amount collected so far is not sufficient for all the 25,000 families,” said RK Selvamani.
It is noteworthy that several stars have also contributed to the fund raised towards artists of the Nadigar Sangam which includes producer Ishari K Ganesh, actors Karthi, Soori, Nasser, Ponvannan, SJ Suryah, Rohini, Sangeetha, and director Santhana Bharathi.
#Nasser, #karthi and many others contributed to #SIAA #Nadigarsangam who are facing shutdown due to #Corona Virus out break. #coronavirusindia #againstcorona pic.twitter.com/CXNkGYXGBf
— NadigarSangam PrNews (@NadigarsangamP) April 5, 2020
Meanwhile, following the statement put out by the South Indian Artists Association / Nadigar Sangam, the Federation of Small Screen Technicians, Tamilnadu had also put out a statement seeking financial assistance. It mentioned that it seeks to help out technicians, writers, and directors of the television industry. Despite the announcement, the federation doesn’t seem to have received contribution of any kind from the film fraternity.
After #FEFSI and #NadigarSangam , now TV union is asking for financial help.!@RIAZtheboss pic.twitter.com/I85QDwa6TQ
— V4UMEDIA (@V4umedia_) March 26, 2020
