The internationally recognized actress-humanitarian Rajshri Deshpande is devoting time to a number of humanitarian causes too. After the 2015 Nepal earthquake, she worked with an international NGO in one of the affected villages. She has adopted a drought-prone village in the Marathwada region called Pandhari, organized a rainwater harvesting project, built toilets, conducted health checkups and community motivation camps, and built an eco-sensitive school in the same village. Currently, as the founder of the Nabhangan Foundation, it’s good to see how the critically acclaimed actress uses a portion of her wealth with the help of CSR corporations to help others who are less fortunate in need. Read through to find out what your favorite celebrity is doing to make the world a better place!
“When I moved to Bombay to act, I wasn’t just here to perform. Simultaneously, I was involved in a lot of voluntary deeds. I was a counselor for a few children in a shelter home. I also remember being in Nepal for a while and thinking to myself how I was totally shut to a life followed by only protocols of acting. Suddenly, the world opened up to me, and I didn’t want to turn a blind eye. I further realized that I cannot be just working on the reel-life characters; I may have to bring those into my actions too. It was actually my characters that made me realize the on-ground reality. That’s how social work also became one of my priorities in life.”
The Nepal earthquake broke her heart. Her humanitarian services over there turned out to have zero potential because they couldn’t plan them properly. The actress strongly believes that they could have created leaders and empowered the locals at the right time. Perhaps, they couldn’t. “That, to date, bothers me a lot. Now that I come from Marathwada and a family of farmers, I have seen my father losing his share of agricultural land due to industrial sources. I embarked on research to know the root cause of it, and I revived a whole river in the village. My series of sacred games had just been released, and I was busy developing a school for the village. It took almost two years for me to see the fruitful outcome! So the promotions of my series weren’t my preference during those days; it was this school. For two years, I was away from the limelight.”
Till the time she had to register herself for the NGO, she continued to work on the development off the record. Those happened to be thirty villages, especially during the pandemic! Now comes an interesting detail for our readers: “Shah Rukh Khan helped me in three different states I was working to develop for. His NGO provided me with an ample number of kits! We made sure that the action happened on the ground. I am always so busy on my telephone—the distress calls range from thirty to fifty in a day. Even if I do not take my manager’s call, I don’t miss lifting the ring coming from a farmer’s end. Nonetheless, I even ensure to speak to each one of them personally and try to understand their suffering.”
She’s dealing with a number of challenges on the ground. Especially when she witnesses the season of droughts! It breaks her heart to see the crops die a tragic death. There is no groundwater left in the villages or economic stability, which is next to nil. She has seen in real time how it led to unemployment! The Maharashtrian heart also calls out the political issues that reach these villages. “A thirteen-year-old girl is still getting married in spite of the law regulation, per say. I have personally appealed to the villagers to stop this! And at the same instant, I am not allowed to point fingers at the government either. There was also a time when we were just working on a surface. A YouTube video cannot stop the droughts from happening; only actions can,” added the Talaash fame.
She got the whole village together and only prospered according to their pain and not what the country could see on the external surfaces. Ultimately, she felt it was their village and their community that they had been building for ages. She ended on a note, saying, “I wish I had a larger team during the pandemic and some financial backing from the corporations. I could have done more for the agonized people. Farmers supported me throughout! So finance became secondary. In fact, their mental health had also become important to me. Eradicate all the casteism and political issues; the villagers are more than happy. Healthy environment and that’s how their mental pressure also decreases.”
“When I moved to Bombay to act, I wasn’t just here to perform. Simultaneously, I was involved in a lot of voluntary deeds. I was a counselor for a few children in a shelter home. I also remember being in Nepal for a while and thinking to myself how I was totally shut to a life followed by only protocols of acting. Suddenly, the world opened up to me, and I didn’t want to turn a blind eye. I further realized that I cannot be just working on the reel-life characters; I may have to bring those into my actions too. It was actually my characters that made me realize the on-ground reality. That’s how social work also became one of my priorities in life.”
The Nepal earthquake broke her heart. Her humanitarian services over there turned out to have zero potential because they couldn’t plan them properly. The actress strongly believes that they could have created leaders and empowered the locals at the right time. Perhaps, they couldn’t. “That, to date, bothers me a lot. Now that I come from Marathwada and a family of farmers, I have seen my father losing his share of agricultural land due to industrial sources. I embarked on research to know the root cause of it, and I revived a whole river in the village. My series of sacred games had just been released, and I was busy developing a school for the village. It took almost two years for me to see the fruitful outcome! So the promotions of my series weren’t my preference during those days; it was this school. For two years, I was away from the limelight.”
Till the time she had to register herself for the NGO, she continued to work on the development off the record. Those happened to be thirty villages, especially during the pandemic! Now comes an interesting detail for our readers: “Shah Rukh Khan helped me in three different states I was working to develop for. His NGO provided me with an ample number of kits! We made sure that the action happened on the ground. I am always so busy on my telephone—the distress calls range from thirty to fifty in a day. Even if I do not take my manager’s call, I don’t miss lifting the ring coming from a farmer’s end. Nonetheless, I even ensure to speak to each one of them personally and try to understand their suffering.”
She’s dealing with a number of challenges on the ground. Especially when she witnesses the season of droughts! It breaks her heart to see the crops die a tragic death. There is no groundwater left in the villages or economic stability, which is next to nil. She has seen in real time how it led to unemployment! The Maharashtrian heart also calls out the political issues that reach these villages. “A thirteen-year-old girl is still getting married in spite of the law regulation, per say. I have personally appealed to the villagers to stop this! And at the same instant, I am not allowed to point fingers at the government either. There was also a time when we were just working on a surface. A YouTube video cannot stop the droughts from happening; only actions can,” added the Talaash fame.
She got the whole village together and only prospered according to their pain and not what the country could see on the external surfaces. Ultimately, she felt it was their village and their community that they had been building for ages. She ended on a note, saying, “I wish I had a larger team during the pandemic and some financial backing from the corporations. I could have done more for the agonized people. Farmers supported me throughout! So finance became secondary. In fact, their mental health had also become important to me. Eradicate all the casteism and political issues; the villagers are more than happy. Healthy environment and that’s how their mental pressure also decreases.”
