Born on August 11, 1961, in Mangalore, Suniel Shetty made his acting debut in 1992 in Balwaan and became an action star in the 1990s. The actor has acted in over hundred films with the most famous ones being Mohra, Dhadkan, Hera Pheri, Border, and Main Hoon Na among others. Not many people know the fact that Suniel Shetty was instrumental in rescuing 128 Nepalese women from sex trafficking in Mumbai in 1996 and arranged for their safe return to their homeland in 1996.
The incident came to light after 24 years in 2020 when the digital media company Vice did a short documentary on Nepalese Nepalese Human Trafficking Industry. In the 24-minute video, Charimaya Tamang, the founder of Shakti Samuha, an organisation that helps survivors of sex trafficking in Nepal, recalled how she was trafficked to India at a young age and was rescued with the help of Suniel Shetty.
She said, "On February 5, 1996, the whole of Kamathipura, the brothel area, had been cordoned off by police and social workers. They got us out of there. This is how we were rescued. After being rescued, our government (Nepal) refused to bring us back. They said we didn’t have our birth certificates or citizenship cards. That is when your film hero, Suneil Shetty supported us. He got plane tickets to Kathmandu for 128 women who had been rescued."
After Shetty's heroics became known to the world, the actor himself talked about the whole incident. He shared that he wasn't solely responsible for the operation as he had support from the cops, social workers, and her mother-in-law Vipula Kadri, who runs Save The Children NGO. The actor told Bollywood Hungama in 2020, "We didn’t really think about the price of flight tickets. The cost was not that important. It was the effort that counted. My mother-in-law started the ‘Save The Children’ NGO and it’s active even today. All of us are involved in it. The inspiration comes from her. Talking about this episode, she was the one who decided to take the risk of rescuing the girls and thereby getting into the bad books of the mafia. I used to passionately and closely work with her. And not just us, but the efforts of Mumbai Police and Naresh Goyal’s Jet Airways all played a big role. My name however comes to the fore, possibly because I am an actor. So more than the others, the rescued girls tend to remember me more."
When Shetty was asked why did he keep the whole episode a secret for more than two decades, he said, "Firstly, we didn’t want to glorify ourselves. It was not right as these girls were involved. Secondly, the operation had to be carried out at a very low profile. Hence, nobody even knew about this incident. Nobody – neither me or my mother-in-law or Naresh Goyal or Mumbai Police – decided to speak about it for the safety of the girls."
Meanwhile, on the work front, Suniel Shetty will be seen next in Welcome To The Jungle. The third installment in the Welcome franchise features an ensemble cast of Akshay Kumar, Arshad Warsi, Paresh Rawal, Raveena Tandon, Lara Dutta, Jacqueline Fernandez, Disha Patani, and several others. The film was initially planned to release on Christmas 2024, but has been postponed to next year.
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