Before the pandemic, Shashikant Pedwa had been visiting Cancer patients in a hospital in Warje for a few years to cheer them up.
Shashikant Pedwal is featured in THE TIMES OF INDIA by writers Mandar Deshpande & Anjali Jhangiani.
Read more at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/84125417.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
PUNE: Videos of actor Amitabh Bachchan’s doppelganger have been trending as viewers are amazed at the performer’s uncanny resemblance to the former. The performer Shashikant Pedwal — a teacher at Industrial Training Institute, Aundh —has taken up the initiative of using his talent to lift the spirits of Covid patients.
“When the second wave of the pandemic hit, everyone was pitching in to help out in any way they could. Some were providing food, some were helping raise funds, some were helping people get oxygen and beds. With focus on more urgent matters, there was hardly any attention to the patients’ mental wellbeing.
I believed that motivation can go a long way to help them recover, and when my videos started trending on social media, I thought the best way I could help in the situation was to perform for Covid patients and boost their morale,” Pedwal said, adding that he took the idea for this initiative to a Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) official, who approved and applauded his work.
The teacher has attended video calls with 378 Covid patients and their families over the last three months as a part of his pro-bono initiative. “Friends and family members of the patients get in touch with me to organize the call. I tell them to take their phones to the patients and ask them if they want to talk to the person on the line without telling them who it is and then I greet them in the typical Bachchan style.
Patients sometimes think it is Amitabh Bachchan himself at first. Sometimes they ask me to say their favourite dialogues from his movies, sing a song, or even perform one of Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s poems,” he said.
Pedwal said from senior citizens to teenagers, everybody is a fan of Amitabh Bachchan. “I get requests to perform from different eras of his career — from the 70s to his latest releases — according to the patient’s age and the movies they have seen or liked of the actor.
I tell them to have courage and that I am with them through this difficult time. I encourage them to have strength and focus on being positive. I have got feedback from their families that this helps them feel better.”
In instances where patients are in the hospital and do not have access to talk on video calls or are not in a condition to do so, Pedwal sends video messages to their relatives or doctors, who can show it to them to cheer them up.
Before the pandemic, Pedwal had been visiting cancer patients in a hospital in Warje for a few years to cheer them up.
“Since I was around 16, my friends started noticing and telling me how I resembled the actor. I started to consciously mould myself like the actor too while growing up. Some years ago, when I was invited to a function, people thought I was Amitabh Bachchan himself,” he said.
Thankyou to THE TIMES OF INDIA
