Sonu Sood on Aap Ki Adalat: COVID hero reveals how he funds the needs of the masses

Sonu Sood on Aap Ki Adalat: The Bollywood actor, who mostly played villains on television, transformed into a real-life hero for the COVID-19 pandemic. His outstanding work prompted the nation to swell with pride as he helped people receive medical help during the coronavirus outbreak and sent hundreds of migrants back home. Now, in the much-loved and famous show, Aap Ki Adalat, he is facing tough questions from India TV Editor-in-Chief and Chairman Rajat Sharma. The actor has now revealed the key question: how he covered the necessities of the public throughout covid.

Rajat Sharma confronted Sonu Sood about helping bring 4,000 students from Kurdistan and Kazakhstan by plane, which is a tough task, and how he managed it. The actor responded, "Those who could afford, paid for their tickets. But we ensured that everybody was brought back. At that time, there were no flights from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Palestine, Russia. I spoke to the offices and ambassadors of all these countries. I was doing this round-the-clock, arranging permissions for airlines and bringing people back."

The actor was then quizzed about how he fulfills the needs of the 400 to 500 individuals that are lined up outside his residence. Sonu said, "I was in Dubai recently. At the immigration counter, a person took selfie with me, said he was a hospital director. He told me you arranged a bone marrow transplant for a person in Bengaluru, and a liver transplant for somebody in Kerala. You paid for these. We want you as our brand ambassador. We met the next day and he asked for my fees for brand sponsorship. I told him, your hospital does the best surgeries and my fee will be zero. Let your hospital sponsor 50 liver transplants for me. One liver transplant costs Rs 28 lakhs. He sponsored 50 liver transplants, which amounted to Rs 12.5 crore. Till now, we have got 19 liver transplants done. Sitting here today (in Aap Ki Adalat), I am saying on national media. Call me, I will try to make it (transplant) happen. A labourer earning Rs 200 a day can't afford a surgery that costs Rs 25-28 lakh. We are ready to do this for them." 

HERE IS THE FULL EPISODE

Rajat Sharma probed Sood on whether he is a superman or a Robin Hood, given the number of transplants and heart surgeries he has performed for people. He replied, "Common Man hoon, Sir. During Covid pandemic, we got  in touch with 7.5 lakh people, along with their Aadhar card details, lists and all. They were all poor people. When we got them transported, they had this zeal to work for me.  They said, 'Sonu Bhai, you helped us, we will work for you'. When we started providing medicines and injections for Covid patients, some people filed cases against me. These poor people rode their bicycles and provided medicines to the needy 50-60 km away. Some patients couldn't even type on their phones, they just sent the photo of their finger on oxymeter showing 52. We provided them help."

Furthermore, Sood was questioned about how he fulfils people's demands on such urgent basis when even God takes longer. The actor said, "It is God that gets all these things done. I am only a medium".

Meanwhile, on the work front, Sonu Sood will be seen in action thriller film 'Fateh', which will go on floors in 2023. Directed by Vaibhav Mishra, the film will be shot at various locations across Delhi and Punjab.

Also read: Sonu Sood on Aap Ki Adalat: Actor opens up on why he left Kangana Ranaut’s Manikarnika