Actor Farhan Akhtar wrote to Sports Minister Kiren Rijju urging him to help Sunita, a world champion in strength lifting, who is currently working as domestic help.
Quoting an article about Sunita, Farhan tweeted, "Respected @KirenRijiju ji, Writing to you with the hope that you can look into Sunita’s case and help provide relief to a sportsperson who has brought so much pride to our country. Sincerely."
The Tribune article Farhan quote-tweeted, relays the story of Sunita from Rohtak who won numerous national and international awards but now struggles to make ends meet.
“My father is a labourer and mother works as domestic help. I also assist my mother whenever she gets assignments of cooking food at local ceremonies and get-togethers. I also do household chores and serve incapacitated elders of well-to-do villagers for a living,” Sunita was quoted as saying.
Sunita's parents are also daily-wage labourers who revealed that they took a heavy loan to send Sunita to the World Strength-lifting Championship in 2020. Sunita won the gold medals in the World Championship, and the National Championship at Chhattisgarh.
Farhan Akhtar awaits the release of his upcoming sports drama Toofaan wherein he plays the role of a goon from Dongri who starts training to be a national-level boxer. The movie, directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, also stars Mrunal Thakur and Paresh Rawal. Toofaan is set to release on Amazon Prime Video on 16 July.
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