Vidya Balan carried the brand Disney on her shoulders in a red Satya Paul sari while she was here along with her husband to felicitate schools who participated in the ‘Friends for Change’ initiative. Divya Kaushik reports
Walking hand-in-hand with her husband, being by his side throughout and occasionally smiling to him, Mrs Roy Kapoor was an example of a doting wife to the gathering at the auditorium of PHD Chamber of Commerce. She was carrying the brand Disney on her shoulders, quite literally.
She wore a red sari from Satya Paul’s limited edition Disney collection, an apt choice for the occasion that felicitated different schools from Delhi and NCR who participated in Friends for Change, an interschool volunteering programme initiated by Disney India in 2014. Vidya Balan and Siddharth Roy Kapoor were the guest of honour for the occasion and encouraged students associated with the initiative.
“Friends for Change was undertaken to promote urban greenery and quality outdoor time with family and community. Students, teacher and local communities engaged themselves in identifying, adopting and developing urban green space in their neighbourhood. I was extremely inspired to see the work that has been done by the students so far.
I truly believe that if we want to see a change in the world, we have to contribute to it. This initiative is a great way to inculcate respect, responsibility among students towards environment. We are paying the price of our negligence towards environment, it was not a conscious negligence but industrial development has come at the cost of environment.
Building parks, that was a part of the initiative, is a very good idea and parks are the place for communities to stay connected. This initiative is a part of Clean India campaign as students have cleaned the spaces and did everything else to make them available to the community. I came here because I truly believe in the cause and I would do anything that is possible in my capacity to spread the word and motivate students to take this initiative forward,” said the actress.
She shared that plans are underway to take this initiative to other cities like Mumbai. “Also, I have been nominated for Swachch Bharat campaign by Chanda Kochhar and I have been thinking of a way to do it. I think it will be a great way to do it with a school. This initiative has really inspired me,” she shared.
Co-incidentally, Vidya’s brand endorsements and recent associations have been with children. She said that it has never been a conscious decision but she loves being with children. She said, “I was not a very children person until my sister had her twins, a boy and a girl.
Now I am addicted to them. They are the best blessings that we have received. I opened up to kids gradually. And when kids realise that you like them even they open to you. For example, when I did Kahaani people told me that my interactions with the kid were very good and asked me if we did some workshops. They were surprised when I shared that we just met on the sets. Now I get along with kids really well,” she said.
Though now as a celebrity with huge fan following and as an individual, Vidya is doing every bit to promote the cause of environment, she could not do much while she was a student. “All I remember is that in higher and secondary school we had khari kamai where we had to work and earn money. When I was in college, St Xavier’s, we had something called the social involvement programme where you would get a certificate if you put in 60 hours a year working with an NGO of your choice. I think that idea can be used in schools as well to involve more students in conservation programmes,” she said.