Frequent fires in U’khand break my heart, says Aspirants actor Abhilash Thapliyal

Actor Abhilash Thapliyal of late has been quite vocal about forest fire outbreaks in Uttarakhand.

“It breaks my heart to see the way fire in Uttarakhand has become a regular affair for many years now. Being a local, I know how disturbing it is to see your land going through such destruction at regular intervals. People lost their lives as well as a lot of wildlife was reduced to ashes. Forest fires in summer are at times unavoidable and then if it breaks at elevated spaces little could be done. But still, there should be proper planning in place for the road map ahead as it’s not always that we should let it pass by,” says Thapliyal.

The actor adds, “I always wanted to bring people’s attention to this grave issue. So, I thought to speak about it from a prominent stage when I received an award recently. Woh kehte hai na stage se awaz sabse tez sunai deti hai. As an Uttarakhandi, I am ready to offer whatever is expected of me if my home state can be saved from natural calamities — be it forest fires or landslides in winter.”

He recalls, “When living in Uttarakhand, I remember when someone visited us some or the other part was on fire, and we pointed it out to visitors who mistook it for light, but it was no light in fact it’s the fire.”

On the work front, Thapliyal is happy that the last release Maidaan received critical acclaim though the sports saga couldn’t set the cash register ringing. “As an artiste, you can never predict a film’s future. When film pundits can’t, who are we? The budget was huge, and it got delayed due to unforeseen incidents, yet it was able to strike a chord with the audience and that makes me happy.”

Thapliyal is geared up for a good set of projects. “I have a film as well as a short film that will be out soon. OTT par bhi kaam ho raha hai and of course everybody’s favourite show Aspirants 3. Being an outsider with no connection here, I consider myself lucky that I got to be part of good stories and do some dynamic work,” concludes Thapliyal.