Rakeysh Omprakash joins Save The Girl Child campaign

Jan 9, 2013 IANS

New Delhi, Jan 9 (IANS) Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has joined the likes of Hema Malini and Nagarjuna to lend support to the government's Save The Girl Child initiative. He has become a part of a music video to raise awareness, and calls it his "baby step" towards driving change.

The song, called "Betiyaan", is sung by Shankar Mahadevan and Sunidhi Chauhan.

"I became a part of this video, maybe because somewhere there is guilt in me as an individual, guilt as a family member, guilt as a neighbour, guilt as a citizen of this country. This guilt exists because I feel that we haven't done much in our action for the girl child," Mehra said in a statement.

"This is the first baby step from my end to go forward and make a difference. It is heartbreaking, to say the least, it is the darkest emotion for somebody to kill their own baby. Can you imagine somebody killing their own babies? I think we should all be guilty for it."

"It has been going on for centuries in our country and we have let it go on for far too long. All we have to do is to take a pledge that we will not let this happen. We should bring the people responsible to task," he added.

The video also features Shilpa Shetty, Shamita Shetty and Raveena Tandon.

Meanwhile, Mehra is gearing up for the release of his new film "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag", a biopic on athlete Milkha Singh. Actor Farhan Akhtar plays the lead role in the movie, releasing July 12.

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