UPDATE: Blind Item Solved. See Below!

Every other day, there’s news about someone doing something to help others during this pandemic. Lately, you must have heard about the kindness of Sonu Sood who among all of Bollywood took the first step in helping migrants get back to their home.

Sonu, when he did this, he did not publicize what he was doing. Word got around and journalists did not back away from interviewing him and giving him the spotlight. Big B recently helped some migrants too go back and people came to know because there was a big poster in front of the bus thanking him for his support.

There are others who are bashing these migrants and blaming themselves from being in this mess. Their reasoning is that the government has ordered a lockdown to prevent the spread of this pandemic, so why are the migrants rushing back to their hometowns? It’s their fault for not listening and obeying the government! This is what some people are saying without thinking why these migrants want to go home. When the lockdown happened, these people were left jobless. With no money, how can they afford to stay put until the lockdown is lifted? Most of them have not even been paid so you can imagine the situation they have found themselves in. Going back to their hometown was the only way out for them!

Anyways, hats off to Sonu for stepping in. This blind item is not about Sonu but about another top actor who, every other week, news comes out about him helping others. Usually what happens is, organizations reach out to the stars and ask them to help out. When they do help out, these organizations will publicly thank the stars for stepping in. And that’s how the media will come to know about it.

This actor and a couple of his friends have sent out kits to help medical officers at the hospital. In return, they wanted these medical officers to take time out from saving lives and film a video to thank the actor and his friends for their kind contribution.

So is this why he is doing all of this? To have people publicly praise their actions! Why? And to think some people thought that celebrities actually cared about others!

Check out the blind item from Rajeev Masand.

Bollywood Blind Item

Extracting Gratitude

Doctors treating Covid-19 patients at a Mumbai hospital were disappointed when they received a note along with a consignment of masks, sanitisers and PPE kits donated by a popular movie actor recently.

The note contained a full script and a set of instructions for doctors to record video messages thanking the movie star and some half-a-dozen others for contributing towards the consignment and for its delivery to the hospital. This includes a well-known producer who also heads a top Bollywood artist management agency.

The doctors thought it was “tasteless” to ask them to record video messages of gratitude. They shared this information and their disappointment over the matter on a WhatsApp group. The request was frowned upon by others on the group too, who took to social media to shame the actor and the producer.

An influential business journalist called it “disgusting” to demand video-recorded thank-you messages. “Please! We should be thanking them for saving lives and putting their own at risk. This is not a personal gift to them. Why ‘extract’ thanks??”
Turns out that when word reached the actor and the producer, they didn’t insist on the video messages anymore, but they’d already lost a few fans by then.

OSOP Guess

Producer/Manager: Atul Kasbekar

Actor: Farhan Akhtar