Visually Challenged Filmmaker Priyesh Jain To Pay A Blind Tribute To Bachchan On His Birthday On October 11

Jyothi Venkatesh

Priyesh Jain, my dear friend and the acclaimed blind Mumbai based filmmaker, who had earlier directed a called called Roshni starring none other than veterean actors like Ananth Mahadevan and Reeta Bhaduri in the main roles two decades ago is a keen on fan of the millennial star of the century, and also the super Shahenshah of Millenium, as he likes to put it- Amitabh Bachchan, who is all set to celebrating his 78th birthday on October 11, 2020. As his own personal contribution to the living legend, who is active today as the all time favorite host of the popular show Kaun Banega Crorepati on Sony TV from Monday to Friday every week, Priyesh Jain has planned to host a musical tribute with his group of visually Impaired artists, called Drishti Foundation Presents Main Hoon Don.

Priyesh has also roped in none other than Poonam Mahajan, who has promised him that she will personally attend the function as the chief guest of honor for the programme which will be held between 1 pm and 5 pm in the suburbs of Mumbai. Priyesh has also zeroed in on Manoj Jai, the owner of the G7 theatre complex, Bandra as well as yours truly yaane ki the veteran film journalist Jyothi Venkatesh,as the celebrity speakers on the occasion. For the uninitiated, Drishti Foundation is a charitable trust working with dedication towards betterment of Visually Impaired people. In view of the same, Priyesh has taken pains to organise a beautiful musical show to be performed by Visually Impaired artists to celebrate the birthday of Shri Amitabh Bachchan, this Sunday afternoon!.

According to Priyesh, though the world refers to him as a blind person, he has always believed that he can see ‘mentally’ because he can imagine and portray what he imagines on celluloid. “Because people tell me that I’m visually impaired, I am close to the word Blind. I decided upon Roshni as the title for my film because I am of the opinion that the word which people think is distant as far as I am concerned, is in fact close to me – Roshni.Roshni is actually based on a One Act Play called Umeed in Hindi staged in Sophia College in 1996 at the Youth Kaleidoscope. Incidentally, Priyesh had directed the play too and also won the award for The Best Play and The Best Concept. Incidentally, Priyesh , who is now 47 years old , is happily married to Reshmi for the past 13 years.

People even wondered how I could gauge people’s expressions or extend my hand for a handshake properly without faltering even for a second. However I was very touched and overwhelmed when three girls –Brinda, Anuvi and Raakhi came up to me and told me that they wished they could donate their eyes to me because they did not know how to communicate with me .They have also written a public service 3 minute short film on eye donation to be directed by myself .We are planning to approach Saurav Ganguly to act in it to spread the message that one should donate one’s eyes after death. The script has been approved by the National Association for the Blind. The film has been woven around a tiny baby, who without her eye sight is helpless in this world. I drive home the message through the film that though the blind can do many things, and having eyes does make a world of a difference.”