Kerala Flood: Malayalam Star Rajeev Pillai Postpones Marriage to Help in Relief Operation; Gets Praise From His Shakeela Co-Star Richa Chadha

Rajeev Pillai, the Malayalam star who acted in films like City of God, Oru Muthassi Gadha, was all set to marry Aluva engineering graduate Ajitha this week. However, the unprecedented floods that ravaged the state of Kerala have put a spanner to his wedding plans. As his native town in Tiurvalla got submerged in flood water, Rajeev chose to postpone the wedding to invest himself in the relief operations in the town.

Rajeev has been regularly posting pictures on Instagram of the flood-ravaged situation of the village, as well as the rescue and rehabilitation operations that he has been a part of. His selfless act has got him a lot of praise from the Malayalam movie fans, as well as Richa Chadha, his co-star from his upcoming Hindi movie, Shakeela.

Richa, who plays the titular character in the film, has shared a picture of Rajeev amidst helping people trapped in flood. She wrote for the picture, "My friend and costar in #Shakeela , @rajeev_govinda_pillai postponed his wedding, which was to happen three days ago, in order to help out in rescue efforts in his hometown of Nannoor , Kerala. They made rafts, carried boats by road to the low lying areas, made good use of all the muscle. Bravo!" Same thoughts we have, exactly!

Check out her post below -

Later in an interview with TOI, Rajeev spoke about the situation in his village. He revealed, "Five hundred metres from my home, an entire area came under water. The only bit which was safe in my village was the area where we lived. There was no time to wait for rescue boats and we made a raft with whatever we could get. There were only 10 or 12 of us who were strong enough to pull the raft all day so for the past 48 hours, we have been in the water. We have just two schools, and also some of the people required dialysis every day. We hardly slept for one or two hours in the night. But I consider it our duty to do this, not as heroism."

He also revealed that he will now opt for a quieter wedding now, which can happen next month. Rajeev said, "We had invited just ten people and now it will be even quieter. There will just be a thalikettu. Most probably it will be next month or so. I would prefer to keep it private."

Rajeev is not the only Malayalam star who has selflessly got down in the waters to help people out. Other stars like Jayasurya, Amala Paul, Tovino Thomas, Asif Ali, Sanu Sivram have been in the relief camps helping out the flood-affected. Mohanlal, Mammootty, Nivin Pauly, Manju Warrier, Prithviraj Sukumaran have been regularly putting out updates and helplines numbers.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 21, 2018 11:48 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).