Bollywood actor Sonu Sood speaks about his Covid humanitarian work on a recent visit to Dubai

Indian actor, humanitarian, and philanthropist Sonu Sood, believes the Covid-19 pandemic “introduced us to ourselves” and the power of a community when it truly comes together to help those most in need.

Speaking on Friday evening at an event in Dubai, organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) Dubai Chapter, Sood shared how he stepped up to come to the aid of thousands of families across India that were hit hard by the pandemic.

Looking back, he recalled how his life changed when he helped a family in the early days of lockdown.

“I started off thinking that my job was to help out by distributing rations, but then, I saw those first few visuals of people that were stranded and I thought to myself that I needed to go out on the streets to get a better understanding of exactly how dire the situation was,” he said.

“I had arranged for a truck in Mumbai, where we were distributing fruits every day. One day a man and his wife with their two small children, who were on their way to Karnataka, requested a bundle to last for 10 days, because that is how long the walk would be,” Sood recalled.

Upon asking how the man would achieve this, he replied that he would encourage the children by having them believe there wasn’t a long way to go. Sood reflected, “I thought that these children would always remember the lies their parents were forced to tell them and how gruelling the journey was.”

Sood then went to the relevant authorities to see if there was a way for him to send the family home. Sood walked out of the office with 20 pages in hand that listed all the approvals that were needed, ranging from negative PCR tests for every passenger to clearance from the authority of every state the bus would be passing through. Also, the actor realised that it wasn’t just one family — he had a crowd of over 300 people that needed to get to Karnataka.

Within two days, Sood had all the paperwork in order. “I remember everybody being dumbfounded at how I had managed to get everything sorted. So, keeping all the social distancing measures in place, we arranged for 10 buses to carry 350 people to Karnataka.” Sood says that he remembers the moment those buses departed like a scene in a movie, where everything happens in slow motion, and he was left with a thought — this was not the story of just a few hundred people, but millions. He vowed not to rest until every stranded migrant had made their way home.

Swarmed with calls

From there, the journey truly began. As word spread that there was a man – an actor – who had not only succeeded in moving people during the lockdown, but was continuing to do so, Sood said that he was swarmed with calls for help. For all his dedication, he realised that he did not have the funds to sustain the operation; however, that changed rapidly.

“Companies would call and say that they would provide the food for a certain day, others said that they would provide water, and people would call me and say stuff like, ‘I will cover the expenses of five people that you are sending home’, so this gave me hope and courage. Despite this, I knew that we couldn’t move the volume of people that we wanted through buses; we had to look into restarting our trains.”

Trains were a more complicated matter than buses and required nothing short of 1,155 permissions, said Sood. This resulted in a frenzy of calls, meetings, and favours being called in by Sood, who used every connection that he had made in the film industry to streamline the process. Finally, he managed to arrange for one train to transport stranded workers. By this time, word had spread and thousands of people gathered at a station, hoping to secure a seat back home.

“A worker, who had all his paperwork and permission to travel in order, would show up with his family or his fellow workers and all of them basically begged me for the same thing, ‘please sir, one way or another, please just get me on this train’; and on top of that people showed up with so much luggage because they thought that this was the end and that they would never return,” Sood said.

Countless times, he said that he would speak to railway authorities in order to cram as many of them into the trains as was safely possible.

A highlight of his humanitarian efforts during this time is when he received a desperate phone call to save more than 150 girls from Odisha, who were stranded in a garment factory in Kerala.

The mission to bring them safely home became his top priority. The only way rescue was possible in this case, was if a flight could be arranged. “We got permission for both airports to open for two hours each,” he said. “That whole night, I couldn’t sleep until those girls landed safely and I started seeing tweets from officials thanking us for coming to their aid.”

Prayers matter

Sood said that through all this, he learned an invaluable lesson: “When you go out to help people, then your intention, your money, good name, and connections aren’t the only things that matter; it is also the prayers of the people that you are helping that will aid you on your mission. Mothers praying for the safe return of their children, wives praying for their husbands, friends looking out for each other — all of this turned into a network where everything aligned and worked.”

That same network soon expanded beyond rescue missions; people began to ask Sood for his help in getting medical treatment, funding their children’s education, and in securing jobs. He had no shortage of friends and colleagues telling him that the situation had grown beyond his control. They urged him to stick to one field such as education or healthcare lest he burn himself out.

“I always replied by asking them what I should say to the scores of people that were camped outside my home asking for my help,” Sood pointed out.

There was a critical turning point though: many brands that had often balked at having Sood as a brand ambassador, due to the villainous roles he played in films, were lining up with offers. The actor accepted these endorsements and in return asked them to fund various missions such as sponsoring a certain number of kidney and liver transplants, or donating laptops and mobile phones to children that needed them for their online classes.

“I asked nothing in return, only that they show me proof that they were doing what they had promised,” he revealed. “For the first time in the corporate world, I saw a transformation. Everyone wanted to help; I had electricity companies coming over and I told them that certain villages needed power and they handled it right away. I asked water companies for help in installing water pumps.”

Good deeds don’t end

The number of companies that offered their services just kept growing. Looking at the mini revolution that he started, Sood said that there is often a misconception about the amount of power that one person should have to make a change. “I didn’t start with big brands and players,” he added. “I started by bringing together a team of people who did not necessarily have the money to help, but the passion and drive to do so. Many of the people I helped ended up becoming volunteers; they would go to remote locations and personally verify calls for help. I could not be more proud of their dedication.”

Sood was also very candid that the feeling of fulfilment through his humanitarian efforts of the past two years, far outweighs the joys of working as an actor. “I think one of the biggest lessons Covid-19 has taught us is something we never learnt at school or college: your good deeds don’t end when you help one person, or even 10 people. You should make helping people a regular part of your lives.”

“Dedicate a certain amount of time in your day to help someone. It doesn’t matter if you are able to help them in the end, but get into the habit of regularly offering assistance to those less fortunate, and I promise that the joy and fulfilment you receive will be unmatched,” he said.

• Dubai