In the last few months of the COVID-19 epidemic, Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has become the messiah for many vulnerable communities affected by the crisis.
The villain of Reel Life played the role of a hero in Real Life when he arranged a chartered flight to help 101 medical students from Russia return to Chennai on Wednesday.
“Medical students in Moscow contacted me for help reaching their homes in Chennai,” he told IANS over the phone. When asked about his new role as the hero in Real Life after the villain in Reel Life, he said: “This is my best role ever. Best Screenplay in my life. Thank you parents and students who inspire me. “
While SpiceJet’s flight was to be direct to Chennai, a halt in Delhi was arranged due to multiple requests.
“The flight had a seating capacity of 200 passengers. We were only 101 students, including one from Delhi. We were not sure that private airlines would operate chartered flights to our capacity. But, we came to know that actor Sonu Sood paid the remaining money to book the entire flight and facilitated our trip, ” TR Shakti Priyadarshini, one of the students, told The New Indian Express.
Students who wanted to return to India were connected through WhatsApp groups. While many students could return to other parts of India in various flights arranged, these 101 students were left behind.
“Students pay a nominal amount and I pay the remaining amount. Even if the number of students is less than the seating capacity of the aircraft, but I see that they have returned to India, ”the actor said.
Last month, Sonu helped arrange a flight for 1,500 students from Bihar and Jharkhand who were stranded in Kyrgyzstan.
According to him, the most difficult part is the work of arranging the logistics as official permissions have to be obtained.
“The Ministry of External Affairs, Indian Ambassadors in various countries and others were very helpful in making the work easier,” he said.
“The only challenge is for the students to arrange local transportation abroad to reach a particular airport. In some cases, students have to travel for 12 to 13 hours. I was never trained to do so. I also talk to foreign logistics providers,” They said.
The actor has also spoken to all these students through a zoom call. There was a time when he received about 300 calls between 1 pm and 3 pm.
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