Mumbai: Filmmaker Aditya Chopra, who had planned to celebrate the completion of 50 years of Yash Raj Films (YRF) globally, is now spending the entire budget to aid the industry and daily-wage earners in battling COVID-19.
The foundation of the production house will provide cooked meals to thousands of frontline workers in Goregaon and also feed people at quarantine centres in Andheri, from the YRF Studios kitchen. This is a part of Chopra’s Yash Chopra Saathi Initiative launched last week, News18 reported.
YRF will not be celebrating its 50th year even if things return to normalcy later, as Aditya Chopra has decided to divert this entire fund for Covid relief work. He is clear that the funds need to be used on an urgent basis to restart the industry first, as it has been hit the hardest because of the virus,” a trade source was quoted as saying.
As part of the initiative, the Yash Raj foundation will oversee direct benefit transfers of Rs 5000 to women and senior citizens in the industry, as well as distribute ration kits to workers for a family of four for one month, through their NGO partner Youth Feed India.
Recently, YRF wrote to the Maharashtra Chief Minister asking if they could purchase vaccines for the 30,000 registered workers of the film industry. YRF added it would cover all expenses related to workers getting vaccinated.
