Kannada film fraternity comes to the rescue of make-up artists, stuntmen

The worst hit of the 21-day lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi are the daily wage workers across all industries. While many independent organisations are making efforts to help the daily wage workers with essentials, some individuals from the Kannada film industry too are taking steps to support the daily wage workers of the industry like make-up artists, stuntmen, dubbing artists, lightmen, background dancers etc.

Filmmaker and producer Pawan Kumar, with the help of other like-minded individuals, is raising funds for those in immediate need of it. Pawan is making the best use of social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as he is constantly urging people to donate and do their bit. He had also engaged other industry artists through Facebook live interactions for better ideas.

As of now, the director has accumulated ₹7.73 lakh donated by common people and members of the film fraternity. Talking to The Federal, Pawan said “I have managed to get about 800 workers with the help of senior members of the industry unions to submit their details. I will now be randomly picking 350 from that list and giving out 2000 each. It is a little difficult to help everybody as the funds are limited”.

The filmmaker who has also kept the process very transparent, will be lending the money directly to the workers and not the unions. He has also not engaged any producers association like Karnataka film producers’ association (KFPA). “I don’t know if they are doing anything from their end. But my initiative was to mainly focus on community exercise and it worked”, Pawan said.

Pawan who has been raising funds for a week now has stopped receiving the donations now.

“Raising funds was very easy but distributing it is a tricky task and that is mainly because government has put cap on UPI payments restricting it to 10 per day. In the time of crisis, it is important these caps are altered”.

The actor also took to Facebook take suggestions. “Everyone who is reading this please create enough noise about taking out the limit on the UPI payment, I know it’s a security measure, but at least for the next 3 weeks it should be removed. UPI payment is the safest and fastest way to donate money to people in current times. ANY IDEAS(sic)” the post said.

Though the donations are closed now, Pawan’s efforts will continue even after the lockdown. “The bigger task is to create employment after the lockdown ends. I am coming up with ideas to address the issue. This will continue”, Pawan adds.