Celebs to their aid

A couple of years ago, director Vishal Bharadwaj fired a member of his house staff; not on grounds of inefficiency, but because he was HIV positive.

That’s the level of ignorance even among the educated, urban population in India, which has the third highest reported cases of HIV AIDS. But having directed a short film on AIDS called Blood Brothers (which is part of the AIDS Jaago project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), Vishal is a changed man today. AIDS Jaago also includes short films made by three other directors — Mira Nair who spearheaded the project, Santosh Sivan and Farhan Akhtar, and will be shown on news channels today.

The response to the project has been great, but Mira couldn’t rope in biggies from Bollywood to support the cause. While some were reluctant to play AIDS patients on screen, others weren’t happy with the remuneration. It’s only second string actors like Raima Sen, Shiney Ahuja, Sameera Reddy and Irrfan Khan who were willing to back the project. Raima, who stars in Migration, the track directed by Mira Nair, says, “It helps if a celebrity is attached to the cause. The film will make a lot more people aware of the disease. I play a villager whose husband infects her. But I have personally not interacted with an AIDS victim.” Meanwhile Nair, who has lost friends to AIDS, based her film on a real-life incident. She attempted to garner as much publicity for her project as possible.

Starpower helps
So, does celeb involvement make a difference to the cause? With the government banning sex education in schools, and drab documentaries advocating safe sex having little impact, little wonder then that nearly two-thirds of the victims in India aren’t even aware that they’re HIV-positive. In such a situation, celebrities lending their name to the cause does help bring it to public notice.
Actor Rahul Bose shot for one of the first adfilms on AIDS way back in 1989, acted in a play that busted myths about only homosexuals contracting the disease and also ran a marathon to support an anti-AIDS campaign. “Choosing the right celebrity is important,” he says. “The celeb’s profile should match that of the cause, otherwise it may backfire. He should also have some knowledge about the issue and should have enough time at his disposal to support the cause.”

Not a glam cause
Unfortunately, the film industry is divided when it comes to lending support to causes of this kind. While actors like Ayesha Takia and Siddharth refused remuneration for acting in Vishal Bharadwaj’s film, most do little beyond appearing at events related to the cause. What’s more, films on AIDS, like Phir Milenge and My Brother Nikhil neither find producers nor an audience. The government also turns down directors’ requests to fund these projects. Onir, director of My Brother Nikhil, a film inspired by the real life incident of Dominique De Souza of Goa, says, “It would be pretentious to say that I made the film because I felt strongly about the cause. It was the story of De Souza that moved me more than the cause. But no one was willing to produce the film since films on AIDS don’t find an audience, and Phir Milenge hadn’t done well previously. So, we had to produce the film. But having worked on the film, I became more committed to the cause and now do workshops with HIV-positive kids in Shillong for a month every year. The film has also been screened by NGOs in India and abroad for people in remote villages. Sanjay (Suri) and I still travel a lot to raise awareness. In Canada, the education department will screen the film in 40 schools.”

West is better
Celebrities in the west have been more proactive in raising AIDS awareness. Michael Jackson, Elton John, Nelson Mandela and the late Princess Diana have contributed immensely to the cause, monetarily and otherwise. And recently Ashley Judd made a documentary on AIDS called India’s Hidden Plague that premiered on television yesterday. Also, Hollywood films made on AIDS like Philadelphia and An Early Frost have been commercial successes, unlike their Bollywood counterparts.

Walk the talk
So if both films and documentaries made on the issue are being ignored, what’s the next best option to raise awareness? Social activist and actor Nafisa Ali, who’s been a crusader for the cause for the last 14 years, says, “I made a documentary on AIDS eight years ago called Know AIDS for NO AIDS, after which I did another documentary called Chakravyuha. But people don’t relate to what’s shown on screen and it just passes them by. So I started a hospital for the victims in the village of Rajowkri on the outskirts of Delhi. I also make it a point to eat from their plates to eradicate prejudices.” That then seems to be the approach to adopt.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com