Even as Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan's movie Kaabil continues to wow audiences and sets an envious box office trail, the actor himself is winning hearts for quite another reason.
Sources say that on his 43rd birthday (January 10) Hrithik pledged to donate his eyes.
The light-eyed actor has always been a very sensitive person, And during the course of the film in which he and his co-actor Yami Gautam play a blind couple, they interacted closely with the visually-impaired. No one knew that on his birthday Hrithik Roshan made the commitment and pledged his eyes through the Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital , run by DR. S Natarajan.
When contacted ,Dr. Natrajan said, " i saw the trailer of kaabil , and I called Rakesh Roshan and asked if Hrithik would pledge his eyes. i was pleasantly surprised when Rakesh told me that Hrithik is already planning to do so . When I spoke to Hrithik, he told me he would like to celebrate his birthday by pledging his eyes and giving the gift of sight
The actor was deeply affected when he learnt that according to NPCB, by 2020, the number of individuals with unilateral corneal blindness in India is expected to increase to 10.6 million. To treat them, 200,000 corneas in a year will be required, but only 45,000 are collected.
Of the 45 million blind people across the world, 15 million live in India. The downside is that 75% of these cases are of avoidable blindness, but due to the nation's acute shortage of donors, most of the cases either go untreated or inadequately treated. In India, blindness has devastating effects on individuals, families and communities, impacting education, economic development and child mortality rates. A simple gesture like this can change someones life for ever .
Dr Natarajan added, 'Although Hrithik pledged his eyes on his birthday at Aditya Jyot Eye Hospital he requested us not to publicise this as he did not want to make this about promoting Kaabil. Now that Kaabil is a great success we would like to use this news to encourage the public to pledge their eyes and share the light and follow Hrithik's example. "
Aditya Jyot hospital is starting a campaign to educate and motivate people to pledge their eyes ... They are targetting one million pledges .. "Through this campaign we aim at collecting 2 lakh corneas in a year so that all corneal blind shall see. At present there is a huge waiting list due to a shortage of donors. On behalf of the visually impaired and the entire opthalmic fraternity in India, I salute Hrithik for this noble deed, " Says Dr. Natarajan .