Stars reach out to Ghatal’s marooned

GHATAL (Midnapore): For the past few days, actor-turned-MP Deepak Adhikari (aka Dev) had been struggling with two listsof onerous responsibilities: an endless “to-do” list for his sister’s marriage on Sunday, and another listing people to call for relief materials for his flood-hit constituency, Ghatal.
Juggling with his dual roles as an MP and an elder brother hasn’t been an easy one, but he carried off the first one with finesse on Saturday, a day before he fulfils his other duty on Sunday.
“The idea of collecting relief materials for the flood victims in Ghatal came to me a few days ago. I called up some people in corporate world and some of my colleagues in film industry. Everyone responded fabulously,” said Dev.
Saturday saw a clutch of Tollywood stars, including Prasenjit, Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan, Sayantika, Pallabi and Tanushree, congregating at Dev’s south Kolkata apartment for a three-hour drive to Ghatal to see for themselves the sufferings and devastation wrought by the flood.
The celebs, led by Dev, reached Ghatal around 1pm and toured the flooded areas in six country boats for more than an hour.
“As soon as I got a call from Dev for help two days ago, I started calling up my colleagues in the industry asking them to contribute. We bought rice, cereals, milk powder, sarees, dhotis, tarpaulin sheets and other material with the money raised and kept them in my garage. Last night, I supervised the loading of all these relief materials in two trucks from 1am till past 4am,” said a bleary-eyed Prasenjit.
He recalled yesteryear’s greats such as Uttam Kumar distributing relief materials to people affected by natural calamities and the underprivileged. “Bollywood actors do such work routinely. I’m thinking of getting our actors here together on a common apolitical platform to undertake such work on a regular basis,” he added.
Apart from those who went to Ghatal on Saturday, actors like Jeet, Jishu, Abir, Tota, Hrittik, Parno, Soham and Subhoshree and corporate houses such as RP Sanjeev Goenka group, Neotia group, P C Chandra Jewellers, Vedic Realty, Lux Cozi, Surinder Films, Shree Venkatesh Films and many others responded to Dev’s appeal.
“We are stars only because of your love. It is our duty to stand by you during your times of distress,” Prasenjit told a few hundred people who gathered at Ghatal to collect relief materials.
The other actors, who toured Ghatal’s flood-hit areas on Saturday, said that it was the first time they got to see a calamity before their eyes. “This visit has opened our eyes and strengthened our resolve to do more for humanity,” said Prasenjit.
“This is not a one-off thing. I’ll organize more relief drives for not only Ghatal, but other flood-affected areas as well. We’ll make this a regular affair,” said Dev, before rushing off to Kolkata to fulfill his duties as an elder brother and oversee all last-minute preparations for his sister’s wedding.