Ammith Rao: Of what use is fame and posing for selfies if you can’t channel it for the right cause?

On the popular daily soap

Agnisakshi

, he plays the much-abhorred villain Kishore. But over the past few weeks, Ammith Rao has indulged in certain acts that clearly go against his on screen image. A look at his social networking profile offers a glimpse into his thoughts and opinions about social issues, especially open defecation, a cause that he’s been vociferously battling against.
“In fact, even I wasn’t aware of how deep rooted this problem is. But recently, I was part of a Swacch Bharat campaign in North Karnataka and that gave me an idea of the ground reality in our state. Sitting here in plush Bengaluru, with our modern attached bathrooms, we take life for granted. We don’t realise that just a few hundred kilometres away, people are struggling to access water, forget accessing toilets,” points out Ammith. He toured places like Yalaburgi, Gulbarga and Gadag for over 10 days with his band of boys taping all his interactions on camera.
“But what actually left me truly shaken was that even the womenfolk and girl children have no access to toilets. That’s when we decided we had to do something for them,” states Ammith. And this is where his popularity as Kishore kicked in. “The irony is that they all possess TV sets and watch all the Kannada serials. When they came running to me to click selfies, the first thing I told them was to request the local authorities to provide basic danitation facilities. I also spoke to the administrative leaders,” he tells us.
“After all, of what use is fame and posing for pictures if one can’t channel it for the right cause?” he asks.