Farhan Akhtar, the actor and founder of MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination) attended Lalkaar Concert jointly hosted by MARD, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Population Foundation Of India on Tuesday in Mumbai. Men Against Rape and Discrimination (MARD), is a social initiative designed to create awareness to instill gender equality and respect towards women.
When asked to Farhan that what message is he trying to convey, he said, “This concert has messaging. We organized a contest for college students to make 2 minutes of short film with an aim of spreading a message about ending violence. We received lot of entries for the contest so today, we will announce winners of the contest”.
“Now we are also thinking about what other things we can do to grow this as a movement because I feel this movement shouldn’t be restricted to cities, we want it to go deeper like in villages and small cities so that it doesn’t look like an elitist type of movement. We want regional artist and people to get associated with it as we want to present this concert in different languages”.
Asking about “Lalkaar”, Farhan said, “I don’t know about the expectations but I am very happy to organize concert like this. It’s a free concert. We wanted that people in large numbers should come to see the concert and in few hours, we will get to know how many people got associated with this initiative. It’s a beginning. We are planning to organize more concerts in future as well. We are happy that we have started this in our very own city Mumbai. I feel violence is such an issue which doesn’t see age, cast and creed. It happens with older and children as well, which shouldn’t be happen so it’s a good thing that people from various age groups have came together to involve themselves with this cause.”
Shah Rukh Khan, Armaan Malik, Papon, Salim Merchant, Sulaiman Merchant, Harshdeep Kaur, Sukriti Kakkar and Prakriti Kakkar also attended the concert.
About MARD :-
Men Against Rape and Discrimination or MARD/M.A.R.D is a 2013 social campaign launched by Bollywood film director and actor Farhan Akhtar.The word “MARD” has been used in the short form of the campaign name. The campaign aims to raise social awareness against rape and discrimination of women.
From its launch, the campaign became a topic of discussion in several social networking sites and has received positive feedback from Bollywood actors like Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Rampal, and Hrithik Roshan.
Akhtar conceived MARD after an incident in August 2012. Pallavi Purkayastha, a Mumbai lawyer, was brutally murdered by her watchman for fighting for her dignity because he tried to sexually assault her. Farhan Akhtar, who initiated the social campaign, was also seen promoting the cause at Indian Premiere League season six where he distributed 70,000 moustaches among the audience on 26 April 2013 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata during the Kolkata Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab match in support of the initiative. This initiative was supported by Adam Gilchrist, Gautam Gambhir, Shaan, and many others who sported the moustache in the stadium.
Actor Mahesh Babu and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar joined the initiative in June 2013. Both Mahesh Babu and Sachin Tendulkar lent their voice to record a poem, written by Farhan’s father Javed Akhtar.
After its launch, the campaign became a trending topic on different social networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook. The initiative received positive feedback and support from many Bollywood actors, including Shahrukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Mahesh Babu, Arjun Rampal, Hrithik Roshan, Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan and Musician – “Mukesh Officials” etc. Akhtar’s tweets were actively re-tweeted by Priyanka Chopra, Arjun Rampal, Sonam Kapoor and Shabana Azmi.