Sonu Sood: A saviour during the pandemic
The COVID-19 situation has brought a plethora of troubles in our lives. At the same time, we have been able to witness the rise of many heroes who won hearts with their genuine efforts. One such icon during the pandemic situation is Sonu Sood, who helped many students and workers in recent months. Sonu Sood is an Indian movie actor and producer who has performed in many popular movies in Hindi, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada and Punjabi languages.
This 47-year-old artist has won various awards like Filmfare, IIFA, Apsara Award etc. He is most popular through the characters he played in Jodhaa Akbar, Dabangg, Happy New Year, Kung Fu Yoga etc. In July 2016, Sonu Sood set up the movie production house called Shakti Sagar Productions, which he named after his dad, Shakti Sagar Sood. He has carried various humanitarian works, the greatest of which were during the time of COVID-19. In May 2020, Sonu Sood was praised by the netizens for helping migrants travel to their particular states.
A helping hand for the migrants
In the wake of the novel COVID-19 lockdown, many were stuck at their workplaces away from home. Sonu organised transports for travellers after he started getting requests from them. He had obtained exclusive consent from the Uttar Pradesh government to do so. He also formulated more bus services so that labourers heading out to Karnataka from Maharashtra could reach home quickly. Many people from Maharashtra and other states would often tweet to Sonu requesting his assistance to travel home. Besides his busy schedule, he found the time to reply to almost every tweet.
He reached out to the individuals for their subtleties so that he can continue with the authorisations. He had also obtained the documents required for sending them home. Aside from sending these migrants home, Sonu Sood likewise propelled a food campaign to help the underprivileged. He even provided 1500 PPE packs to medical professionals across Punjab. Anyone who visits his twitter page can see his compassion and dedication towards this humanitarian work.
A random post on his page (1) said “A few migrants of Bihar are there in Boisar, Palghar. Would you be able to support them, “. To this tweet, Sonu replied, “Will get it done bhai. Will rest for quite a while. Remind me tomorrow. Have a busy day tomorrow. Good night and God bless.” This is only one representation of how Sonu has reacted to his followers on Twitter and consoled them of his help. For his respectable actions, Sonu Sood has collected a significant round of commendation on the web. Many posts on social media complimented him for his “extraordinary work”. Many congratulated him saying that he was a real legend. Others considered him as a man with a huge heart and thanked him for his incredible help.
Moved by the sufferings of his fellow beings
Though a number of celebrities were doing their part to help those affected by the situation, Sonu stood apart because of his extraordinary feats. A while after carrying out his humanitarian works during the pandemic situation, Sonu Sood spoke to the media about his efforts. The actor revealed his routine during the lockdown and the struggles he went through to help his citizens. He said that he starts his day at 7-7.30 in the morning. Until 12 in the noon or so, he spends his time collecting data and making calls for these works.
It was a time when everybody in the nation was stressed over traveller labourers strolling back home. Sonu Sood said that it was genuinely emotional to watch these travellers wandering on streets with their little children and old parents. The situation inspired him to consider what could be possible. Sonu realised that there were empty transport buses that they could utilise to travel back home. At that point, he got consents from Maharashtra and Karnataka governments. He was able to gather around ten vehicles for these labourers to leave from Mumbai and arrive at Karnataka.
He also opened a food initiative that began with 400-500 individuals. Sonu Sood got together with one of his friends who were in the food industry. Together, they started delivering food and ration to those in need. Soon they began having volunteers rolling in from all over the place. Eventually, the news spread about this food campaign, and they started to receive requests from various locations. Within a few weeks, Sonu was able to serve food to more than 45,000 people during the pandemic.
Other initiatives by Sonu Sood
Around the same time as helping migrants, Sonu Sood sent 1,500 PPE units to health workers across Punjab. He did so with the aim to help those in rural areas which are not yet aware of its importance. In July 2020, he began the #MissionKyrgyzstan to transport 1500 stranded students from Kyrgyzstan to India. His act of rejoining these students with their families across the country received huge praise through the media. These students had been abandoned in Kyrgyzstan for as far back as four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The main flight took off on 23 July to bring back 135 students from Bishkek to Varanasi. He was able to arrange nine such charter flights to bring home the abandoned kids. Demonstrating their appreciation in the most genuine manner, the students made a unique video for Sonu while travelling back home in the flight. Later in August 2020, Sonu Sood helped 101 medical students stuck in Moscow during the lockdown arrive at Chennai. The students said that they sent an email to Sonu on July 23 after seeing reports of him helping students abandoned in Kyrgyzstan to come in India. Immediately after receiving the email, his office reached them and organised the flight.
Towards the end of August 2020, Sonu Sood offered his assistance to those wanting to show up for the JEE and NEET tests. Despite the pandemic circumstances, the Supreme Court had dismissed the request to delay the trials. Following this, the National Testing Agency (NTA) is outfitting to hold the examinations in September. Sonu Sood especially contacted youngsters stuck in the flood-hit zones of Bihar, Assam and Gujarat. He communicated his readiness to help them with transportation offices to arrive at the examination centres.
