Two of Bollywood’s biggest directors teamed up with charity Give India to present a virtual fundraising event on Sunday.
Much like the “One World Together at Home” event coordinated by Lady Gaga earlier this month, Indian directors Karah Johar and Zoya Akhtar hosted a livestream including dozens of actors and musicians to raise money for India’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
World-renowned actors such as Shahrukh Khan and musicians including A.R. Rahman performed and gave inspiring speeches in the Facebook Live event, dubbed the iFor India concert, that was streamed by thousands of people around the world.
Mick Jagger, Joe Jonas and Mindy Kaling were also taking part.
Organizers hope the event will raise over a million dollars.
“100% of all proceeds of #IForIndia will go to GiveIndia’s Covid 19 relief efforts. This will help provide PPE kits to healthcare workers and food, rations, and cash relief to daily wagers and migrant workers,” a description under the event’s livestream read.
The virtual event comes as India recorded the highest one-day spike in new cases, having reported over 2600 new positives on Saturday, according to national news.
India has confirmed COVID-19 cases have surpassed 40,000 and the death toll is over 1300, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus resource center.
Late last week, India announced that it would extend its lockdown — one of the strictest in the world — another two weeks.
