Actress Vidya Balan turns coolie for TV show

Mumbai Oct 26: Actress Vidya Balan will be seen donning the avatar of a coolie for upcoming television show "Mission Sapne". "Mission Sapne" will show a celebrity living a commoner's professional life for one day, learning their skills along the way.

The celebrities will have to pull out all the stops with their talent, wit and star persona to ensure that the business does even better. The money earned by the celebrity will then be multiplied by 100 and he or she will hand over the amount to the person.

For the show, the national award winning actress has chose to support Manju - Rajasthan's first female coolie. "As public figures, we sometimes forget that most people face hardships and struggle to make ends meet. Stepping into Manju's shoes has been an eye-opening experience for me.

The difficulties she faces are tremendous, specially in a job that is completely dominated by men, who believe that being a porter is not a woman's job," Vidya said in a statement here. "I am glad that through 'Mission Sapne' I have been able to facilitate some change in Manju's life.

I really hope that I have been able to make a sizable contribution to help her in building her children's future," she said.

Smruti Shinde, producer of Sobo Films, says, "Vidya epitomises woman empowerment in every sense and redefined the way women were perceived in Indian cinema.

That made her the ideal personality to support Manju, Rajasthan's first female coolie." While the first season of "Mission Sapne" had Salman Khan, Varun Dhawan, Karan Johar and Ranbir Kapoor among others, the second season will add some popular names from the entertainment industry.

PTI