On 13th August, 2013 a signing up event was organised at PVR-Juhu Lavina, Mumbai. The cast and crew of Anand Gandhi’s film Ship of Theseus along with Kiran Rao; actor Aamir Khan’s wife who is also independently a film producer, screenwriter and director pledged to be organ donors. The event was organised in association with MOHAN Foundation.
Ms. Pallavi Kumar, Executive Director, MOHAN Foundation, Delhi-NCR represented the Foundation at the event. She recounted the Foundation’s first encounter with Gandhi’s film. She mentioned that snippets from the film were screened last year on 4th April, 2012 at ‘Samarthan’ – a fundraising and awareness event organised by MOHAN Foundation at the Lodi - The Garden Restaurant, Lodhi Gardens, New Delhi. It was an evening of music and dinner with filmmakers Shekhar Kapoor and Anand Gandhi publicly expressing their support for the cause.
Ms. Kumar further added that the screening was received well and everyone present at the event instantly knew it was going to be a special movie. Also; she expressed that the Foundation was thrilled to see a mainstream movie feature organ donation as the central theme and specially acknowledged the fact that the issue was dealt with in a realistic and sensitive manner.
The Ship of Theseus takes its title from the Greek myth in which Theseus’ ship was repaired, plank-by-plank, to the point where no material from the original remained in the restored craft. A story used by Greek philosopher Plutarch to illustrate the paradoxical nature of life. Gandhi’s debut film addresses existential questions through the stories of three individuals based in contemporary Mumbai. All three tales indicate their individual experience with organ transplantation. The film released in India on 19th July, 2013.
Kiran Rao believes that there is "great merit" in saving a life. She said, "This film has given me a chance to think about organ donation deeply. Earlier, I thought we can only donate our eyes, but the fact that each and every organ of our body can be used to save somebody's life, I got to know about this from the film."
Interacting with the media, Anand Gandhi said, “It has been a very strong concern for me and my friends; if my statistics are correct, in India 315000 people die from the absence of availability of organs and it’s a situation that can be corrected very easily and does not require a huge effort.”
Also present at the event was Sohum Shah, co-producer and actor in the film. He said that if the film inspires even a single person to be an organ donor, then he would have more than recovered his investment in the film.
Neeraj Kabi, one of the main characters in the film said that he had always wanted to be an organ donor but never really knew how to go about it.
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