Rajinikanth, Suriya, Sivakarthikeyan donate for welfare of film employees amid coronavirus outbreak

Rajinikanth donated ₹50 lakhs, while Suriya, Sivakarthikeyan and Vijay Sethupathi gave ₹10 lakhs each for a film body looking into the welfare of film employees.

Tamil actors Rajinikanth, Suriya, Sivakarthikeyan and Vijay Sethupathi have donated a cumulative sum of ₹80 lakh towards the welfare of Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) amid the coronavirus outbreak.

While actor Rajinikanth has donated ₹50 lakh, Suriya, Sivakarthikeyan and Vijay Sethupathi have chipped in with ₹10 lakh each.

These actors have come forward to donate after FEFSI Union President RK Selvamani has released a statement requesting members of Tamil film fraternity to support the daily wage workers of the union who are currently jobless as shooting of Tamil films have been suspended till March 31.

In the statement, Selvamani said: “As we are aware, Tamil film world has been crippled by the Coronavirus that is currently threatening the entire world. In the 50 years since the inception of the union, the film industry has faced various strikes; protests were held against the producers demanding pay rises and demands from the government. But nothing of this scale, the ongoing lock-down is very different.”

The statement further added that the union needs to raise minimum of Rs. 1 crore to support its members by giving rice bags. FEFSI consist of 23 unions belonging to different trades in the film and the television industry that has around 25,000 members.

Actor Suriya along with his father Sivakumar and brother Karthi was the first actor to come forward for the support of FEFSI workers. He donated Rs. 10 lakh and his gesture immediately inspired his colleagues Sivakarthikeyan and Vijay Sethupathi to follow suit.

Actor-filmmaker R. Parthiepan has provided 250 rice bags. Actor-filmmaker Manobala has also donated rice bags to FEFSI workers.

Over the last few weeks, the shooting of several Tamil films had to be stopped following the coronavirus outbreak. Team of Vikram’s upcoming Tamil film Cobra had to cancel their currently schedule and return to India due to the coronavirus scare. The shoot of Simbu’s Maanaadu, scheduled to take place in Hyderabad, had to be cancelled.