Stars join Uber in charity drive

MADRAS Round Table 1 and Uber, in association with Friends of Chennai have started the Chennai Gives campaign – an initiative to drive for a better Chennai that adopts, adapts and improves.

This was on the occasion of International Day of Charity, last Saturday.

As the brand ambassador of this event, actor Aravind Swamy encouraged people, including celebrities, to contribute to the needy.

Some of the Kollywood celebrities present, who have generously donated 100 or more items towards this cause, were Jothika, Surya, Vikram Prabhu, Shriya Reddy, Dulquer Salmaan, Soundraya Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Dhanush and Viswanathan Ananthan.

Speaking about some of the positive activities of our famous celebrities, South Indian actor Prakash Raj, who is a nature-lover and a philanthropist, recently started the Prakash Raj Foundation to “Give Back to Life”.

This foundation plans to extend forest corridors, adopt villages, support community farming and address various other issues. It will also organise to conserve nature, promote art and help people who are less fortunate.

The actor has pledged a whopping part of his earnings towards this good cause.

Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi is about to begin work on his 150th film.

Meanwhile, the latest news buzzing in Tollywood is that Chiranjeevi will make a cameo appearance in his son Ram Charan Teja’s upcoming Telugu action flick, Bruce Lee.

The film’s director, Srinu, said: “Chiranjeevi will appear for 15 minutes in the film. I can’t divulge much about his role, but I can assure you that his fans will love it. We are yet to shoot his portion and we intend to do it soon.”

In this movie Ram Charan plays a stuntman, sporting a Bruce Lee tattoo.

The film will also be the Telugu debut of Tamil actor Arun Vijay, who became a heart throb recently after playing the antagonist in the Tamil movie Yennai Arindhaal.

Another story creating headlines about this movie is that the South Indian actress Ileana, pictured, who is turning heads in Bollywood at present, has been offered a fabulous fee to do a single item number in the movie.

She was apparently approached after she made a surprise appearance at Chiranjeevi’s 60th birthday bash recently in Hyderabad, which was graced by many top-notch celebrities from the Indian film industry.

Fans are very eager to see her in this movie!