A Class Actors and Actresses not Interested to Take Part in Movies Based on HIV/AIDS

Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, four short movies on HIV/AIDS are going to be made in India and set to be released with the blockbuster movies. Each of the movies will be of 15 minutes and will be shown just before a blockbuster movie to be released. Four famous directors of India have been assigned in this regard. Mira Nair, Santosh Sivan, Farhan Akthar and Vishal Bhardwaj are the four directors who are going to make movies on HIV/AIDS. The objective of this movie project is to increase awareness regarding the disease among the general people. I am quoting Mira Nair from a Reuters report:

"The idea is to piggyback on blockbusters to spread AIDS awareness," Nair said at a news conference in a country that has the world's largest population living with the deadly virus.

"We want to use cinema (against AIDS) so that it holds a mirror to the world and gets under your skin."

However, getting A class actors or actress for these movies has been a great difficulty as many actors and actresses are not interested to be involved in such movies being feared of loosing their image. The report stated:

Nair, who is making one of the 12-minute films which will be titled "Migration", said she had been unable to get A-list Bollywood actors to feature in the films on AIDS.

"Lots of stars don't want to be associated with the virus," the feisty director said, adding: "Some live and don't learn."

"We do not want to preach but entertain. Once you start preaching and teaching, people get bored," Bhardwaj said.

The directors are hoping the movies will be released in cinemas within a few months, and Nair said the initial response from distributors had been positive.

Two of the short movies would be in Hindi while the other two would be in south Indian languages like Tamil, a press statement about the AIDS Jaggo (Wake up to AIDS) initiative said.

According to UNAIDS, India has 5.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS and stigma and prejudice is widespread.

Many people, including some federal lawmakers, believe that a person can get HIV by shaking hands with an infected person, surveys have shown.

Though there were some movies in Bollywood made on HIV/AIDS, none of them was box office hit. It is a good initiative for protecting this vital disease from the second most populated country. As India has a huge population, it will be very difficult to control the number of HIV/AIDS patients if once the number goes out of control. So, this is the best time to think about it and take such initiatives to keep the control over the number of HIV/AIDS patients and it is the earnest responsibility of each Indian people to help government in preventing such disease. Here, celebrities should come forward as people can be easily influenced by his or her dream personality. So, from this point of view, each actor and actress should come forward with their generous mentality. If Bill and Melinda Gates, two Americans, can come forward in order to help India, then it is shameful to see that an India are scared of talking part in this great initiative.