From reel-life to real-life hero

Akshay Kumar proved yet again that he is a man with a large heart. Akshay, whose father is a former member of the Armed Forces, took to social media on Tuesday and proposed donating money to the families of martyred soldiers without the involvement of middlemen.

With an aim to help the country’s jawans, the actor proposed setting up a web portal with a link to the family members’ bank accounts, so that people would directly be able to deposit money. Once the money totalled Rs 15 lakh, the account would be taken down.

“We are a country of over 125 crore people. Even if 15,000 people were to step up and donate Rs 100, given the amount of time net-banking transfers take, it would still be a matter of about four hours before the family receives the required amount,” he elaborated in the video. The Jolly LLB-2 star also added that if he had the support of his fans, he would take the necessary steps to make this concept a reality. “If we can do this today, it will be the biggest salute that we can give to our Armed forces on Republic Day,” he appealed.

The video has gone viral on the Internet with over 11,000 retweets and 9.5k comments on Twitter alone. While most simply saluted the idea as brilliant, others added their own suggestions. Author Ravinder Singh tweeted, “Let’s not include just the martyrs, but also the ones who are left disabled (while fighting for us) and out of service.”

A Faridabad-based Twitter-savvy fan also wrote, “Both Central & State govts can support this,” while another suggested that some similar measure be brought in for Indian farmers. It seems like Akki’s idea has caught on like wildfire.