B-Town stars light candles, diyas to honour India's fight against COVID-19

Mumbai: Prominent personalities from the Indian film industry, including Amitabh Bachchan, Lata Mangeshkar, Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar, lit candles and lamps on Sunday, responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 9pm 9min initiative to show solidarity in the country's fight against coronavirus.

The prime minister on Friday urged people to switch off lights at their homes and light lamps, candles or turn on mobile phone torches for nine minutes at 9 pm on April 5 as a gesture to "challenge the darkness spread by the corona crisis".

Bachchan, 77, shared pictures of him lighting a torch, mentioning a line from his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan's poem in the caption.

"T 3492 - 'Hai andheri raat par diya jalaana kab maana hai (In the hour of darkness why not light a candle)' ... another epic poem of my Father and how visionary it has proven tonight for the #9PM9minute call. Will put up the entire poem by tomorrow on video!" Bachchan tweeted.

Mangeshkar shared photo of hers lighting a diya.

"On the call of honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi, come let''s light the lamp together," she captioned the picture.

Uploading a picture of him holding a candle on Twitter, Akshay captioned, "Together we stand and together we will come out of this dark phase. Till then stay strong, stay safe #9Baje9Minute."

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Sharing a picture with his wife Latha, superstar Rajinikanth tweeted, "#StayHomeStaySafe #Solidarity #Unity #IndiaFightsCoronavirus."

Actor couple Deepika-Ranveer shared a picture, where the "Gully Boy" star is holding a candle. "9pm9Minutes" the duo captioned the picture.

Anil uploaded a video on the microblogging site and captioned it as: "All in this together."

The clip showed his house, decked with lamps, with the "Malang" actor holding a candle and walking with prayer chants in the background.

Madhuri Dixit said people are united in order to fight this pandemic.

"Let the light of the diyas, candles bring back light into our lives as these illuminate our hearts with positivity & strength," she wrote.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan shared a family picture with lamps sans caption on Instagram.

Actor Adil Hussain also wondered why some people in south Delhi burst crackers.

"Why are people bursting crackers? Was this part of instructions as well? Just when the air was clearing out. This is disheartening and sad," actor Dipannita Sharma tweeted.

Lighting a diya, writer-lyricist Varun Grover took the opportunity to highlight the struggles of healthcare workers during this pandemic.

"Please light diyas and also show your collective consciousness. But don't forget to fight for more testing and frontline professionals to get PPE kits. Along with ''Jai Jawan Jai Kisan'', also chant ''Jai Doctor Jai Vigyan," he tweeted.

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Earlier in the day, film editor-writer Apurva Asrani said he would neither light a candle nor turn the lights off "on behalf of all self employed persons, whose income has completely stopped, I protest the exorbitant interest your govt is charging on the #EMIMoratorium."