FT NEWS

After several super-successful collaborations such as Hum Paanch, Pavitra Rishta, Jodha Akbar, Kumkum Bhagya, Kundali Bhagya, and Brahmarakshas, Zee TV and Balaji Telefilms are all set to present viewers with an exciting new story about life, love, karma, and destiny – Bhagya Lakshmi, starting 3rd August and airing every Monday to Saturday at 8:30 PM on Zee TV. Set in Mumbai, Zee TV’s Bhagya Lakshmi will follow the journey of Lakshmi, a selfless girl of limited means, who despite her humble background and the curveballs life has thrown at her, always puts others’ needs before hers. Essaying this character will be none other than the popular television actress Aishwarya Khare who is all excited to begin her journey with this new role. In fact, Aishwarya has already begun her preparations and has found a rather unique way of getting into the skin of her character.   

To feel truly inspired and find a special, deep-rooted connection with Lakshmi’s character, Aishwarya decided to reach out to some truly exceptional COVID heroes from across India who embody her character Lakshmi’s selfless spirit and in the course of the pandemic, have prioritized the needs of others before themselves, put themselves at risk and helped humanity in a significant way. During her search, Lakshmi came across Javed Khan from Bhopal, Abhishek Gupta of Lucknow, Harsh and his mother Heena Mandavia of Mumbai, and Sourav and his mother Lakshmi Das from Delhi and spoke to them about their selfless journeys, reinforcing her faith that kindness still exists! 

Eager to hear his story, Aishwarya met Bhopal’s brave COVID hero - Javed Khan, an autorickshaw driver who converted his auto into a free ambulance to transport COVID patients who had no means to even get to a hospital for critical care. Javed told Aishwarya that he sold his wife’s jewelry to convert his auto into an ambulance. In his auto, he arranged for a sanitizer, an oxygen cylinder, a PPE suit, and some medicines to serve as a functional ambulance. At a time when everyone was hesitant to provide any kind of physical help to each other, it was Javed’s courageous act that helped him save the lives of more than 300 patients in Bhopal. Upon meeting Aishwarya, the young COVID hero said, “Somebody had to take the patients to the hospital, then I thought - why not me?”

Aishwarya also met Lucknow’s Abhishek Gupta who along with his friends helped conduct the final rites of several deceased COVID patients. At a time when families were not allowed to cremate their loved ones following a COVID death due to medical protocols, Abhishek and his friends volunteered to fulfil their last rites at their own expense, putting their own lives at risk. For this reason, a lot of families of Lucknow city will forever be grateful to Abhishek and his friends.

Aishwarya also happened to connect with Mumbai’s Harsh Mandavia and his mother Ms Heena Mandavia whose tiffin service distributed more than 27,000 meals, 65,000 tawa rotis, 8000 home-made sweets and 1000 immunity booster balls to the needy during the pandemic and still continue to feed the needy, every week, if not daily. Since then, this mother and son duo have been winning the hearts of many people with their selfless service. In fact, they also won Aishwarya Khare’s heart when they got her special homemade sugar free sweets for her and the entire team.   

She also met Delhi’s Sourav Das, a selfless COVID Hero, who along with his mother Lakshmi Das decided to help many disadvantaged people in society with the distribution of free masks. During the initial phase of the lockdown, Sourav felt that there was an immense dearth of affordable, good quality and comfortable masks for the underprivileged. That’s when the idea of distributing free masks and setting up contactless mask dispensers across Delhi came to him. Being an adept seamstress, his mother Lakshi tailored these masks at home herself and he streamlined the delivery mechanism. Speaking more about his initiative – ‘Pick One, stay safe’ during his conversation with Aishwarya, Sourav said his mother and he had distributed 2200 free masks in less than 2 months and the number keeps increasing month on month. He also happened to reveal the various challenges that he faced during his journey. However, he also mentioned that no challenge was big enough to make him take a step back from helping people around him.   

Deeply moved by each of their heart-warming stories and kind gestures towards helping people during the most difficult times, Aishwarya gifted these COVID Heroes a Lakshmi Murti as a token of appreciation and also wished them a blessed future.   

Talking about her experience of meeting all these COVID Heroes and seeking inspiration from them, Aishwarya mentioned, “Since my childhood, we’ve always read about or watched superheroes like Superman, Spiderman, Shaktiman in awe. But during a crisis like the COVID pandemic, it was gems like Javed, Abhishek, Harsh and Sourav who devoted all their time to help people in need. I feel these are the real heroes that we must look up to and try to imbibe some of their selfless traits. After hearing their stories, main karti hoon #NekiParYakeen and I feel deeply connected with Lakshmi’s selfless journey and that being kind to others is a way of life for some of these ‘real-life Lakshmis’ that I met as a part of my preparation for the role. Now I truly believe that every covid warrior’s journey is quite similar to Lakshmi’s life where the thought is simple: Neki kar dariya mein daal. I am really delighted to see how their efforts have paid off and brought them so many blessings from people around them. I just hope their stories inspire many more people just the way they inspired me, I sincerely believe that we need many more people as such in our country.”