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Reel do-gooders!

From lending their names to worthy causes to setting up their own NGOs, you'll suddenly find big screen heartthrobs turning social activists once the grease-paint comes off.

As recently as last week, Amitabh Bachchan adopted two little girls in Bihar, Sanjay Dutt walked the ramp for patients suffering from cancer, John Abraham plans to do a full Monty to create awareness about animal rights, proceeds from Salman Khan's paintings' sale goes to charity and Suniel Shetty works for underprivileged children.

Salman has even floated a foundation that works for the underprivileged section of society, while fellow do-gooder Rahul Bose works against discrimination and has established his own NGO for minority community girls apart from tsunami rehabilitation. The list is growing by the day.

So what is it about social work and celebrities? Do celebs feel obligated to do social work? Or are they merely well-timed goodwill gestures to create the right kind of image for a star?

Actor Suniel Shetty says, "Since we are termed as special people who have received a lot from the society, we ought to give back to the society. What we get from the society is our bread but what we give back to the society is our life. And why should there be any pressure? Nobody puts a gun to our head to do these things." But some celebs do agree that their work might be misconstrued by the media. Like actress Perizaad Zorabian, who works closely with children says, "I refrain from overdoing social work because then the media accuses one of doing charity for effect. So I try very hard to balance out my social work."

For Bollywood heartthrob John Abraham, his social work is done in between his films. "I love animals and I work for PETA. I have helped build houses in villages. In 2007 we (the social organisation I am associated with) built 5,000 houses in villages all over India and in 2008, we plan to build 8,000 houses. The youth connect with me. They feel that if John can build houses, we can build houses too," he says about his work.

A normal citizen turning social do-gooder may not make the same impact that a celebrity or a public figure doing social work would make.

In India, where almost everyone looks up to celebs as idols/aspirational figures, when an icon takes up a social cause, sometimes we listen to them better. Bidisha Fouzdar who works with a global NGO says, "Celebs are definitely one of the powerful ways for us to propagate our causes to the masses. And a lot of celebs that we worked with during the Mumbai Marathon realised that a lot of things were worthy of contributing their work towards, in spite of their busy schedules. And rather than doing fund-raising events, we want powerful celebs to help build a movement for change."