Pratik donates to procure oxygen concentrators

At a time when Covid-19 positive patients and their families are battling with the lack of oxygen cylinders, Pratik Gandhi made a small contribution to a fundraiser by We The People Foundation. He has extended a helping hand to raise funds to procure oxygen concentrators for government run hospitals in Banaskantha district of Gujarat and setup a community-owned oxygen plant in the region.

Talking about it, he says, “There is a start-up which is run by Shruti Chaturvedi. She got in touch with me and told me to help them amplify their initiatives on social media. That’s how we started getting a lot of verified information about medicines and oxygen supply and thus, made them available in different cities. This is how I came aboard this initiative called Oxygen For Gujarat.”

The Scam 1992 actor shares that he has also been helping people around him during the on-going crisis. “I wanted to help those suffering and do my bit by amplifying information and requests related to Covid-19,” he says.

Gandhi is quick to point out that verifying every bit of information posted by him on social media is “impossible” but he has reached out to a group of people who are helping him. “I’m in touch with a few teams who are taking the effort in verifying information. I make sure that any information that I put out is triple-checked because I don’t want to miss out on something crucial,” he remarks.

Actor Nikita Dutta is on the road to recovery after testing positive for Covid-19, but that doesn’t take away the fear of getting infected again while working. Hence, she opines that actors should have been given preference for vaccination after frontline workers.

Dutta contracted the virus last month while shooting for her dance film, Rocket Gang, in Mumbai alongside Aditya Seal. “After my co-star tested positive, we stalled the shoot, and I got myself tested. My report came negative twice, and then positive,” she reveals.

The actor confesses that she’s doing much better now, unlike before. “Unfortunately, before I tested positive, I was in a more grave situation. I had a fever and wasn’t able to stand up. By the time I tested positive, I had already started to get better,” Dutta shares.

However, as the fear of the virus still lingers around, Dutta admits it “scary” to remove a mask to shoot a scene, but adds that there’s “no alternative to that. Unless they start writing scenes where actors are wearing masks,” she quips.

And that’s where vaccination would come in, and shield them, feels Dutta. “Unfortunately, the entertainment industry isn’t given that much preference. As actors who are facing the camera every day, we should have been given a preference after the essential and frontline workers. However, the good part is that the vaccine will now be available to everybody,” says the actor, who was last seen in The Big Bull (2021).

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