Richard Gere with many Kollywood stars like Kamal Hassan, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh, Vikram, Sarath Kumar, Radhika, Revathi gathers for a show in Hyderabad to spread the awareness on AIDS.
The show called 'A Time For Heroes,' was sponsored by agencies including the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation was an evening of 'infotainment' on AIDS/ HIV.'You can change anything in partnership with others. I am very proud of my acting community for coming forward. We don't have to rely on the Government to do everything. The beauty is in the effective community response towards fighting the disease,' said Mr.Gere
The purpose of the show was not only to create awareness about the disease but also remove the stigma attached to AIDS and HIV. Richard Gere was the main force responsible in putting up the show and getting other stars from South to join on one platform and talk about fight against HIV/AIDS.
There are about 40 million people were suffering from HIV/AIDS around the world and the whole thing had to be tackled like a natural calamity said Mr.Gere.
'Only those who can halt the spread of HIV/AIDS are the real heroes.' Said Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi.
Those who participated in the function included Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, State. Health Minister K. Rosaiah, Telugu Movie Artistes Association president Mohan Babu. There was also a suggestion by the Chief Minister saying that education on AIDS should start early in schools like classes 7,8 and 9.
During the function singers Sunita Sarathi, Rahul Nambiar, Suresh Peters, Malathi and others sang a mix of Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada songs.
A shawl from Lord Venkateswara temple in Tirupati was wrapped around Mr. Gere and Singer Usha Uthup sang the theme song composed by maestro Illayaraja to start the event.
