Temple built for Indian film star who helped thousands of migrants during Covid-19 lockdown

The residents in India’s southern state of Telangana have built a shrine to an Indian film star who helped thousands of stranded migrant workers go home during the coronavirus lockdown.

The temple, with a bust of actor Sonu Sood, was inaugurated in Dubba Tanda village on Sunday, in presence of the sculptor and the locals, according to news reports. The residents, dressed in traditional attires, sang folklores celebrating Mr Sood’s humanitarian work. The religious ritual of aarti, usually reserved for deities, was also performed in front of Mr Sood’s bust.

"As he has attained the place of God by his good deeds, we have built a temple for Sonu Sood. He is a God for us," Giri Kondal Reddy, a district councillor, told news agency ANI.

The temple was part of an initiative by locals with the help of authorities of Siddipet district, according to reports.

Ramesh Kumar, who was part of a group that planned the temple, said: "The way Sonu Sood has been helping people since the lockdown due to the pandemic has not just been recognised by India but the world.”

“So, on behalf of our village, we decided to build a temple for him. Like Gods, prayers will be offered to Sonu Sood too," he said, speaking about the actor’s philanthropy.

After receiving the news of the temple, the actor responded on Twitter: "Don’t deserve this sir. Humbled."

Earlier this year, when India announced a sudden lockdown as coronavirus infections started spreading, millions of migrant workers in the country were left stranded in absence of functional public transport. Many of the workers decided to walk back to their hometowns hundreds of kilometres away, pushing the country into a unique crisis. 

While several charities and activists came forward to help the stranded, Mr Sood ensured that thousands of workers could go home on the private buses he hired to ply them. In one case, he even chartered a plane to send them home.

The actor, through social media channels and helplines, was flooded with requests from people seeking help to return home or work lost due to Covid-19. He responded to several of these messages.

In July, he had also launched a job search app for migrants, ‘Pravasi Rojgar’, (migrant employment) which recently received £2.5 million investment from a job matching platform ‘GoodWorker’, owned by an investment firm of the Singapore government.