UP villagers want Amitabh Bachchan to keep his word

Villagers of Dalulatpur in Barabanki district, about 30 km from Lucknow, want Amitabh Bachchan to play college principal Dr Prabhakar Anand of Aarakshan in real life, too.

The idealistic principal, Anand, advocates equal educational opportunities for all, regardless of caste, creed or economic status.

Now that the Big B has donated his land in this village to the gram sabha, the locals are reminding him of his promise to build a girls’ college here.

In 2008, Amitabh was in Daulatpur accompanied by his family, Amar Singh and former chief ministers of four states and laid the foundation stone of the Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Girls’ College.

The Bachchans had promised the college would become a reality soon. The work was to be executed by Nishtha Foundation of film star-MP Jaya Prada. But over three years later, the college is yet to come up.

“We have written to Amitabh Bachchan to fulfil his promise,” Daulatpur gram pradhan Amit Singh said.

“We have suggested that this area desperately needs a hospital, so Amitabhji can get a hospital constructed here instead of a girls’ college. But what is the utility of the land to us without any funds to develop it,” he adds. The villagers in their letter to Big B, signed by several gram panchayat members, have urged him to donate Rs10 crore for the development of the donated land into a college or hospital.