Hindustan Times ST (Jaipur)

ON MY BIRTHDAY, WANT 1000 FREE BEDS IN HOSPITALS’

Holarships and health care facilities feature gh in Sonu Sood’s list of birthday wishes

- Shabh Suri

Sonu Sood is not big on birthdays, but nothing can stop his fans from making it special for him. Another temple is being constructe­d r the actor in Andhra Pradesh, d he feels humbled by it.

“I’m humbled to see the love ing showered by them. The oment I started helping people, I dn’t focus on one village or state, was pan India. I want to continue aking it bigger,” he tells us, ding that on his birthday, he’ll art a new initiative. “I want to ake education free of cost for eryone in this country,” he says. Turning 48 today, Sood emerged a messiah figure in 2020 by ranging transporta­tion for igrants who were walking back their home towns during the lockdown. He also helped people through social media. Cut to 2021, and he says things have become bigger, and frequency of calls has increased. And therefore, this is how his birthday will be spent.

“I’m getting calls from different states. There are seven-eight people walking, some are on bicycles, some on bikes, who’re coming all the way to Mumbai on my birthday. It’s a big challenge. I’ll make sure it happens no matter how much time it takes,” says Sood, sharing his birthday wish for this year is “to have at least 1000-1500 free beds in hospitals, and ten times more scholarshi­ps for students by my next birthday”.

The actor reveals the reason he doesn’t believe in opting for big celebratio­ns, though he admits that he used to be quite the opposite before. “Lately, I feel very

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