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Tamil Nadu
A sure-footed campaign against TB
Ramya Kannan
CHENNAI: Ever since Rajinikanth lent himself to the mid-80s ad campaign to eradicate polio to an astounding response, it has been clear in Tamil Nadu that star power can truly swing a cause.
Nearly two decades later when a younger star, Suriya, talks about joining the battle against Tuberculosis with Reach, he is still referring to Rajnikanth’s sleight of hand that brought mothers, with children in tow, to pulse polio booths. “I still remember his work for pulse polio. It still evokes total recall.” For a star who is seen as frequently on television as he is on screen, thanks to the brand endorsements, Suriya is sure he can make a difference. “The brands I work for think I can make an impact in the market. I think I can make the same impact with a social cause.”
Personal experience
But then, why TB? Suriya has a number of reasons. “Right from childhood, I’ve seen relatives being affected by it. My driver, who was very close to me, had TB. I still remember the tears in his eyes when my family did not want him to be around.”
The driver, incidentally, became part of the first campaign film for Reach, a Chennai-based non-governmental organisation creating awareness of TB and its treatment. “For long I believed that TB would affect a certain group of people—rickshaw pullers, autorickshaw drivers and children. Then, a senior technician in a film I was working in went through this and was badly affected.”
Further, a friend’s mother, young and high up on the corporate ladder, too, succumbed to TB. “That’s when it struck me that even people in ‘high society’ can get TB.”
Other facts
Then, there are the facts: tuberculosis claims at least 1,000 lives every day in India; the patient must undergo the DOTS regimen (treatment) for the prescribed six months and stopping it in between can prove fatal to the patient.
For Suriya, meeting with Nalini Krishnan, director-projects, Reach, was the next stage. Bursting to do something, he found the right platform in Reach. The first commercial, in which the driver’s story was narrated, proved a success. “I got great feedback. It was supposed to be shown in Tamil Nadu only but they liked the film so much that they dubbed it into other languages, through the Central Government.”
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