Stars come to the AID(S)

The fight against AIDS is all set to get an unprecedented celebrity boost — it’s a music video featuring what is billed as the ‘largest congregation of Bollywood stars’, with ace fashion designers like Rohit Bal, Ashish Soni and Hement Trevedi doing the costumes and dance guru Shiamak Davar is working the steps.

And if that’s not enough, Javed Akhtar has penned the lyrics and singers Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal are lending their voice for the video for which Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy have composed the music.

The video will bring together over 40 stars, including Viveik Oberoi, Shilpa Shetty, Diya Mirza, John Abraham, Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra, Pooja  Bedi among others - the attempt being to have as many youth icons as possible backing the campaign.

The music video is actually the title track of ‘Hath Se Hath Mila’, a youth-focused reality TVshow produced by the BBC World Trust in association with the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) for DD1 that will reach out to around 200 million viewers. To be directed by documentary film-maker Anu Malhotra, each episode will present a ‘yuva star’ who has done exceptional work in spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS.

The programme will bring them together with their favourite Bollywood stars. One Ladakhi boy who had been working as a counsellor wanted to meet Viveik Oberoi, and the star came down to meet him in Chandigarh. Similarly, Shilpa Shetty flew down to Karnataka to meet Shanti Noronha, an HIV-positive mother of two, who was impressed with Shilpa Shetty’s portrayal of an HIV patient in a recent film.

Anu Malhotra, director
The whole idea about Haath Se Haath Mila is to touch people’s lives. We are aiming at a world wide premiere. It’s taken us three months of hard work to gather so many of them in the same frame. Getting so many Bollywood personalities will ensure that we get the highest viewership. Something like this has never been done before. It is going to be bigger than ‘We are the World’. 

Shilpa Shetty, actor
It was a learning experience for me, especially to be doing something for someone from Karnataka since I myself am from Bangalore.

Meeting Shanti was painful but also a very touching experience. Here was a mother of two, who had contracted HIV from her husband and yet she loved her husband so much and she has such joie de vivre for life. It is a project we are all happy to be part of.

r_faheem@dnaindia.net