How much did Khans contribute towards coronavirus relief? Nikhil Dwivedi says Salman, Shah Rukh spend ‘substantially’

Nikhil Dwivedi said that Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan spend “substantially” towards social causes.

With the coronavirus pandemic gripping the nation, Bollywood celebrities are doing everything in their capacity to help the government fight it, from urging their fans to stay indoors and practice social distancing to making large donations to relief funds.

After Akshay Kumar contributed Rs 25 crore to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) fund, author Shefali Vaidya questioned how much the Khans - Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan - had donated. Producer Nikhil Dwivedi jumped to their defence.

Nikhil responded to Shefali’s tweet and said that Salman, Shah Rukh and even Amitabh Bachchan are extremely generous. He wrote, “SalmanKhan’s BeingHuman foundation works round the year. Once, I myself was sceptical of it. In recent years I hd the opportunity of observing it closely& was pleasantly shockd at the kind of monies it spent. Its a sincere charity. SRK spends substantially too. So does MrBachchan.”

 

Salman has pledged to support 25,000 daily wage workers from the film industry through his charitable organisation Being Human Foundation. Federation of Western Indian Cine Employees (FWICE) president B N Tiwari told PTI that the foundation reached out to him a few days ago.

“We have about 5 lakh workers out of which 25,000 are in dire need of financial help. Being Human Foundation said they will take care of these workers on their own. They have asked for account details of these 25,000 workers as they want to ensure that money reaches them directly,” he said.

Shah Rukh had earlier said in an interview that he likes to keep his contributions under the radar. “I don’t like talking about it [charity]. A lot of people and my friends always tell me I should do photographs and stuff when I meet some people. But I don’t believe in it. It is a true thing that if I believe in a cause, I should do it silently and not use my persona as an actor to advocate that,” he had said.

Aamir, meanwhile, is the co-founder of a non-profit called Paani Foundation, which works towards solving the issue of water scarcity in the villages of Maharashtra.