Is B-Town more interested in aping the West when it comes to charity?

Until about a month ago the world was busy pouring ice buckets over its head and making generous donations to patients of a fatal neurodegenerative disease courtesy the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge As soon as the social media campaign hit Indian shores Bollywood celebrities ever eager to latch onto anything Western joined it with gusto turning it into a kind of philanthropist fashion statementActor Sidharth Malhotra takes the Ice Bucket Challenge a campaign aimed to raise funds for ALS patients in the US that went viral on social mediaVarun Dhawan was nominated by Sidharth Malhotra to take up the Ice Bucket Challenge but the former steered clear of it Now he has joined hands with an NGO attending to JampK flood victimsHowever the glamour brigade has not responded with similar zeal to a far bigger tragedy closer home The Jammu and Kashmir flood ravage has blipped on their radar but intermittently with most paying lip service to the cause their contribution being no more than a prayer on Twitter or Facebook A case of misplaced priorities or to beg the question just plain disregard for anything that isnrsquot high on the glamour quotientA volunteer rescues a young woman caught in the flood in Chattabal area of Srinagar PicPTI ldquoYou can take up any cause you feel strongly about but you should also support causes in your own country After all itrsquos unfair to categorise the level of peoplersquos suffering If we are privileged enough and can afford to help those in distress we must reach out to them be they nearer home or across the seasrdquo says actress Soha Ali Khan disagreeing with the belief that BTown celebs jump on the bandwagon when it comes to following western trends and causes ldquoNo matter what you do people always find ways to criticise you Itrsquos a basic human flawrdquo she retortsSoha Ali KhanA fad too sensationalThere are two kinds of people believes veteran actress Raveena Tandon mdash those who try to make a difference to the world and those who make a spectacle of oneself ldquoEven during my time there were some actors who genuinely felt for social causes and others who did things just to be part of a trend It is sad to see that at times fads get more coverage than people who actually work to make a differencerdquo she ruesRaveena TandonRecalling a drive by the late Sunil and Nargis Dutt to organise cultural tours for the entertainment of jawans on the border during the 1962 IndoChina War she says ldquoSalman Khan and I also went to distribute relief material during the Kargil War But such things do not always make news I donrsquot see the media reporting a great deal on who from the industry are working for the Jammu and Kashmir flood victims Sensationalism is what sellsrdquoHrithik Roshan too is involved with a volunteer organisation which is distributing relief material to flood victimsPicNikesh GuravCopy without causeSonakshi Sinha does not mince words while admitting that many follow campaigns and issues of the West just to appear ldquocoolrdquo The astute actress put many of her industry colleagues to shame when she took a stand against the Ice Bucket Challenge by dumping a single piece of ice over her head and raised the issue of water scarcity ldquoI did it only because I felt that somewhere along the way the message was lost and people were doing it for the sake of fun Many households donrsquot even get that one bucket of water a day and imagine the water wastage with 23 million people across the globe taking up the challenge We donrsquot know how many of them donated money to the ALS cause and how many just wanted to be cool or funny on social mediardquo she shrugsSonakshi SinhaThis sensational campaign met with criticism from various quarters as waterscarce regions worldwide gasped at water buckets being sloshed around mindlessly Then came its desi spinoff the Rice Bucket Challenge which found many takers The idea was simple mdash donating a bowl of rice to a needy person mdash and relevant in the Indian context Actor Ali Fazal says ldquoWe are the victims of a double trade Yoga becomes famous because the West accepts it and we are accepting credit for Kamasutra because foreigners find it cool Letrsquos find our own DNA We are the West for a large part of the globe toordquoAli FazalOn the other hand Gangs of Wasseypur actress Richa Chadda does not find anything wrong with taking up issues concerning another country even when they hold the remotest significance for India ldquoWe should be innovative and come up with more ideas that need attention because the world has shrunk and people can help each otherrdquo she saysRicha ChaddaRiding the waveImitation of the West may seem prominent now with the expansion of digital media network but it is unfair to assume that the film industry was indifferent to home issues says actressturnedproducer Dia Mirza ldquoJust because you donrsquot see our videos pledging support for flood victims or cancer patients for that matter it doesnrsquot mean that we are not reaching out to people in distressrdquo argues the former beauty queen who took up the Ice Bucket Challenge and is also raising funds for JampK flood victimsDia Mirza who did the Ice Bucket Challenge is also raising funds for JampK flood victimsldquoThere are so many issues in India that need to be addressed that as citizens you feel overwhelmed because no matter how much you do it is never enough I know many actors filmmakers and technicians who are personally involved in distributing relief to flood victims in Kashmir but you donrsquot know about them as they do not seek publicityrdquo she addsItrsquos natural for issues to find celeb support if they are marketed well and have a glamour quotient feels VJturnedactor Purab Kohli who is involved with a voluntary organisation gearing up for rebuilding activities in Kashmir ldquoThat is seen in case of social groups which have celebrity brand ambassadors And ours is a glamour industry after all If something is trending you have got to be part of itrdquo he asserts