Tollywood actor donates 10 pc of his film's earnings to 'save the farmers' initiative
Telugu actor Manchu Manoj has come forward to donate 10 percent of each of his film's earnings to ‘Save the Farmers’ initiative.
He has started ‘Manoj Kumar's Unity' in order to collect funds for the development of farmers in India. This foundation started an initiative called ‘Save the Farmers'. Its basic aim is to get people donate a day of their annual salary to farmers. He has further pushed the envelope by nominating five people to do the same. Politician KTR (Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi), filmmaker SS Rajamouli, actors Rana Daggubati and Sai Dharam Tej, and entrepreneur GV Keshav are few of the names that popped up.
Manchu, who is known for his Tollywood films like Bindaas and Jhummandi Naadam, said in a statement to IANS,
The farmers in India are the ones feeding us. It is our duty and responsibility to feed them. I know that farmers won't accept any donations and giving money won't suffice. Money raised will be used for the welfare and betterment of farmers. The money will be used to create a robust system for farmers for soil testing and selling the crop at a better price in the market. The money will be used to provide the families a better standard of living, proper education for their children, and for restoring water bodies and purchasing farm equipment, he added.
Also read: After Nana, Amir Khan and Akshay Kumar come forward to help drought hit farmers
In the past, many Bollywood actors have come forward to help farmers. In 2016, when Latur, a district in Maharashtra was hit by drought, prominent names like Nana Patekar, Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar came forward to help drought-hit farmers. Aamir Khan adopted two villages (Tal and Koregaon) in the drought-stricken state of Maharashtra. He had earlier adopted a village in Bhuj in Gujarat, which was devastated by earthquakes in 2001. Actor-producer, Riteish Deshmukh too joined the brigade when he donated Rs 25 lakh to the initiative Jalyukta Latur, as his contribution towards drought relief programme in Maharashtra.