‘Donate, but don’t take a camera along’
Actor Mahhi Vij and her husband Jay Bhanushali had recently slammed those posting pictures and videos of relief work they’re doing amid the Covid-19 crisis. The couple was subjected to backlash for their opinions.
“A lot of people said in articles ‘aap khud toh kuchh karte nahi ho, AC mein baithe rehte ho’. We sit in the AC because we have worked hard for it. When I was doing Laagi Tujhse Lagan, I had to paint my face for 22 hours; the AC didn’t come just like that. I come from a middle-class family, I never had one at my home, which is why I can sit and even then donate. I don’t have to show people ‘I am doing this’,” says Vij.
She goes on to assert, “You want to contribute to society? Do it, but you don’t have to take a camera and show ‘main itne de raha/rahi hoon’.”
Vij, 38, also doesn’t like it when people talk about the couple’s foster kids — Khushi and Rajveer — as it is something that is very personal. “A lot of people have written that we aren’t doing anything in this crisis. But what we are doing, we are not posting about it. It’s only to be in God’s good books, not yours,” she asserts.
“If I am doing anything, the good karma from it should reach my parents and three kids, I don’t even want it for myself. Bhooke ko khaana khila rahe ho, uska video toh mat banao yaar! Talk to them instead, ask them where the rations for the next month will come from,” Vij adds.