Farhan Akhtar wants his 'Lalkaar' to reach villages

Mumbai: Actor Farhan Akhtar, who wants to spread awareness against gender violence through his concert 'Lalkaar', says that he wants to take this movement to villages and small cities.

Farhan who was present at the 'Lalkaar' concert jointly hosted by his foundation MARD (Men Against Rape and Discrimination), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Population Foundation Of India on Tuesday here, says that this movement shouldn't be restricted to cities.

"We want it to go deeper like in villages and small cities so that it doesn't look like an elitist type of movement," he said.

"We want regional artists and people to get associated with it as we want to present this concert in different languages," he added.

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Akhtar's MARD is a social initiative designed to create awareness to instil gender equality and respect towards women.

Asked what kind of awareness they are trying to bring through MARD's 'Lalkaar' concert Farhan said: "This concert has a message."

"We organised a contest for college students to make 2 minutes of short film with an aim of spreading a message about ending violence. We received lot of entries for the contest so today we will announce winners of the contest," he added.

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Talking about the "Lalkaar" concert, Farhan said: "I don't know about the expectations but I am very happy to organise a concert like this. It's a free concert and we wanted that people in large numbers should come to see it."

The "Lalkaar" event was attended by Shah Rukh Khan, Armaan Malik, Papon, Salim Merchant, Sulaiman Merchant, Harshdeep Kaur, Sukriti Kakkar and Prakriti Kakkar.

Superstar Shah Rukh Khan performed a small gig at the event.

--IANS