Happy birthday, Sonu Sood: How a reel hero became a real-life saviour for thousands

The lockdown imposed on March 25, 2020, to check the
spread of COVID-19 had a huge impact on migrant workers of the country who,
with no means of livelhood and paltry savings exhausted, had no option but to
go back to their hometown.

Thousands of migrants started on thousands of kms journey to
reach home, on trucks, cycles and on foot. With heart-rending visuals emerging
from the long walk back home, Bollywood actor Sonu Sood decided to do something
to help the migrants reach home safely.

Talking to Opoyi about his efforts, the actor said he was
completely shaken by the visuals of people walking thousand miles with small
children and old aged people “Those visuals of people walking with their kids
and the elderly and those unending journeys spurred me to help these migrants
reach their homes. Imagine a father telling his kid, ‘don’t worry, Bihar jaldi
aa jayega’ ‘UP jaldi aa jayega’.

“They have to walk hundreds of
kilometers, thousands of kilometers with their little kids and when these kids
grow up, what kind of memories of childhood will they have? That their parents
walked thousands of kilometers and struggled to go back to their homes?”

Sood did not want the migrants’ children to have such dark
memories. “I didn’t want these kids to grow up with those memories, so I
thought I have to come forward and help them.”

Also Read: Sonu Sood to provide free IAS coaching, launches Sambhavan initiative

The 48-year-old actor, who is best known for his roles in films like “Dabbang”,
“Simbaa”, “Happy New Year” and his international project “Kung Fu China” also
starring Jackie Chan, has  also launched Toll Free Helpline number-
18001213711 that can help migrant workers reach out to actor’s team for help.

Sonu maintained that there was no formula to get this work right.

“I had no formula of how to go about it. All I had was the intention that I
won’t let them walk on these highways and that’s when I reached out to a group
of 350 migrants travelling to Karnataka. I got all the permissions and put them
on buses and sent them home. Then I arranged several more trips for migrants
going to Bihar , Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh,” he
said.

And he won’t stop till the last migrant reaches home.

“When I started reaching out and helping migrants, a lot of people came forward
and offered help. I knew we had to keep at it till the last migrant reached
home. So far, almost 18,000 to 20,000 people have already been reunited with their
families,” said the actor.

Also Read: Sonu Sood to Priyanka Chopra: Bollywood stars helping out during India’s COVID crisis

Recalling the time when his urge to help these helpless people started, the
actor pointed out,“ I and a very close friend, Niti Goyal , also started a food
drive.  When we thought of distributing food, Niti asked, ‘Sonu, whom
should we give food to’.  We decided to go to the highways to give out
food packets. But once I reached there, the whole perspective changed. These
people just wanted to go home and when I helped out the first batch, the word
spread and the trust factor kicked in. More and more people reached out seeking
help.”

Days have gone but the actor’s determination and dedication refuses to die down
and his social media account is a testimony to that where he is receiving
several requests from different parts of India.

The article was first published on July 5, 2020.