‘MORE ARTISTES NEED TO COME TOGETHER TO PROTECT ENVIRONMENT’

NEW DELHI: Talking at length about the significance of popular cultural platforms in facilitating sustainable future at the HT Environment Conclave, Bollywood actors and environmental activists, Dia Mirza and Bhumi Pednekar touched upon various issues that are being overlooked when it comes to environment conservation.

“When it comes to India and advocacy and spreading awareness on climate and environmental action, our filmmaking and storytelling is far behind... Some good and powerful documentaries have been made but in mainstream feature cinema, nobody has really made the effort to do so here, unlike what Leonardo DiCaprio has done in the West. When a pop culture that is so widely consumed in a country takes it upon themselves to deliver a message, the effects of that are bound to be far reaching...,” said Mirza, UN Secretary General’s Advocate for Sustainable Development Goals and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Goodwill Ambassador.

Pednekar, who founded a panIndia digital initiative called Climate Warrior in September 2019, said that she understood the power of cultural platforms to spread awareness long time back. “Most of the cinema that I’ve done has been quite socially relevant and I’ve seen the impact that a film with a right cause and a good intent can do. So, it goes beyond me that why are people not recognising the need to speak about climate change.”

Mirza recalled that when she started talking about environmental protection 15 years ago, there were a few people in the mainstream media who were reporting anything at all. “And I’d like to thank Hindustan Times for being one of the few and rare publications that has followed the climate story and has reported on environment much more than any other publication in the country.”