An Indian actor will give one thousand rupee notes to fifty God-fearing poor street hawkers if his controversial video is shared a million times online.
His film captures their tearful reactions when he gives them the money.
Varun Pruthi’s campaign has been criticised by one of India’s leading philanthropists as exploitative and manipulative of the poor he is trying to help. An adviser to Prince Charles’s Prince’s Asian Trust said he had portrayed himself as a “messiah” by telling his grateful recipients that “God sent me for you”.
In the video, the young actor and dancer approaches an old woman selling water for a penny a cup, a plastic toy seller, a young girl selling ten pence bracelets and a disabled man with one eye in an Indian city centre park and asks them if they believe in God.
All of them say they have great faith before the actor reaches into his pocket and gives them a red one thousand rupee note – around £10. More than 40 per cent of Indians earn just 78p a day and for them a thousand rupees is the equivalent of almost two weeks’ wages.
A candyfloss seller asks him ‘why are you joking with me?’ before kissing the note. The disabled man, who walks with a pronounced limp, tearfully embraces his benefactor, who urges him to “never give up on life”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFVPBKpXXV4
The video begins with the question “can money buy happiness?” and closes with the answer: “If you are in tears then yes, money can buy happiness.”
“We waste our lives on things we think will buy happiness until we realise the only way to buy happiness is to give happiness”, the video says.
The actor’s campaign hits a raw nerve in India where road junctions are worked by several families of beggars, polio victims, amputees and destitute women, but charitable giving is low and many people give to temples instead.
Prince Charles launched his British Asian Trust to encourage Indian tycoons to give more to charity and do more to help the poor. But a member of his advisory board, leading Indian corporate aide Suhel Seth said the actor’s video was “awful” because he “invokes God and almost projects himself as a messiah. It goes against the grain … you want people to be self sufficient and not to beg.”
“Of course people in India should give more than they do, our track record in philanthropy is abysmal. The poor give more as a percentage to those poorer than themselves. We must allow people a life of dignity through livelihoods, not hand me downs”, he added.
In 2010, Azim Premji, one of India’s wealthiest billionaires gave more than a billion pounds to charitable causes to become the country’s leading philanthropist.
