Mumbai: As Assam grapples with severe flooding, memories of last year’s devastating Punjab floods have resurfaced — a disaster that destroyed thousands of homes and claimed 40 lives. Amid the destruction, actor Akshay Kumar had quietly stepped forward to help, committing to rebuild 100 homes for affected families. Of these, 80 have already been completed.
Actor Gurpreet Ghuggi, who has starred alongside Kumar in Singh Is Kingg (2008) and Cuttputlli (2022), recently opened up about how the actor reached out to him personally during the crisis, wanting to know the best way he could contribute.
Ghuggi shared that when relief efforts were largely focused on food and immediate supplies, he suggested to Kumar that the real need would come later — once families realized their homes were completely gone. That conversation, he says, is what led to Kumar’s pledge to rebuild 100 houses.
To make this happen, Ghuggi put together a team to identify the families most in need, with most of the affected homes located in Punjab’s Gurdaspur and Amritsar districts. According to him, the remaining houses are expected to be finished soon, and the entire initiative was driven by Kumar himself. The rebuilding effort has been carried out through the Hari Om Foundation, which Akshay Kumar set up in memory of his late father, Hari Om Bhatia.
Reflecting on the actor’s low-key approach to charity, Ghuggi remarked that while Kumar plays a fearsome character on screen in his upcoming film Haiwaan, in real life he is a genuinely warm and generous person. He added that Kumar was reluctant to have his name attached to the effort at all, preferring the help to remain private rather than be publicized.
