Bengaluru: It is a welcome change to see actors speaking out on issues. It was Abhay Deol a few months back, talking about fairness cream and now it is Kunal Kapoor who exposes the dark underbelly of our society through his poetry. “It is a welcome change to see actors taking a stand, speaking their mind. Because, even though they are celebrities and have a huge influence over people, they rarely talk about issues, sensitize people or even take a stand. They are always politically right. But it is not the case in Hollywood. There, a Meryl Streep would openly criticise or praise a larger issue. Hence, we welcome such moves,” says Prakhar Pandey, Entertainment Photographer.

Bollywood actor, Kunal Kapoor decided to shed more light on women issues by turning into a poet for UnErase Poetry, a community that promotes and produces spoken word poetry in Hindi and English by creating online content. The community collaborated with the actor, along with Ketto.org, which is Asia’s biggest crowd funding website, as well as My Choices Foundation, an NGO working towards the eradication of human trafficking in India, to create a campaign called #SoldBodies, in an attempt to raise awareness about forced sex slavery and human trafficking in India and, through their efforts, also raise funds for the cause. The actor took to the stage to lend his voice o a cause that is affecting the country in the darkest way we know today. The words have been penned down by Mohammed Sadriwala, Navaldeep Singh and Simar Singh.

The video sees Kapoor standing on an empty, dimly lit stage, dressed down and basic, speaking into a mic while a guitarist lends some soul-stirring background music to enhance the meaning of his words.

Kapoor begins his poem by saying, “Every night when you drive back home, you cross that road where love is sold.” With every word, the grim reality of the situation will get to you. “A celeb lending his voice to something as grave as this will make people sit up and take notice. Such issues need interventions, and this will only help the cause,” says Shruti Venkat, Business Head, Cineyug.

The video also reveals some grim reality—a woman is forced into sexual slavery every three minutes. What’s worse is that only one percent of these girls are ever rescued.

Alarming Data

According to the Government of India data, almost 20,000 women and children were victims of human trafficking in India in 2016, a rise of nearly 25 percent from the previous year