Mumbai: Indian actor Sonam Chhabra shined bright as a symbol of strength at the Cannes Film Festival as she walked the red carpet just five months after going through an organ donation. Chhabra also became the first actor to promote organ donation at the prestigious European film festival after she donated her liver to her ailing mother in December last year.
Chhabra, who last appeared in the second season of the TV series Made In Heaven, walked the red carpet for the Cannes Film Festival in France on Monday. Unlike other actors who participated in the festival from around the globe, Chhabra did not only participate as an actor but also as an organ donor spreading awareness about the noble cause.
In an exclusive conversation with the Free Press Journal, Chhabra said that she wanted to represent the strength of organ donors at the prestigious film festival for which she accepted the invitation to the festival after such a short span of going through an organ donation. She expressed her content feeling of becoming the strengthening factor and spreading awareness about organ donation through the Cannes Film Festival.
βFive months back, when I was in the hospital as a donor, life seemed very dark. I kept thinking whether I will ever be able to recover from this, let alone going back to work. Today five months later, I am glad that I am walking this red carpet as the symbol of strength,β Chhabra told the Free Press Journal.
In December last year, Chhabra donated 60% of her liver to her mother who was diagnosed with the last stage of liver cirrhosis. After a successful liver transplant, her motherβs condition worsened and she could not be saved. After losing her mother, Chhabra decided to take up the cause of educating people about organ donation and started online counselling sessions for people donating organs.
Chhabra, who started her career hosting well-known Bollywood award shows, had shifted to fashion, lifestyle and mental health content creation, from where she made an organic diversion into acting and now is a counsellor for organ donation. After she posted about her organ donation on social media, a lot of her followers, who were donating some organs to their family members, reached out to her and she started counselling them along with her mother.
Even after her mother passed away, Chhabra continued the counselling sessions in her memory and today counsels 10 organ donors about their health, necessary precautions and their fears. βAlthough not being a medical practitioner, people feel safe to share their problems with me when I talk to them as an elder sister. I have developed a correlation with these donors and we have collectively formed a beautiful community,β she said.
Chhabra was invited to the 76th Cannes Film Festival by the Lebanese International Creators group, where she represented India with her traditional Farehat saree that takes its inspiration from the bygone eras of tribal kafile. With prominent motifs that one can find on every other street and corner of the country, the vintage black tone of the saree is balanced with a burst of colours in the border, embellished by hand with sequin work and chikan embroidery.βIt is from Torani's new collection called Juloos, which is an ode to the diversity of India, and the spirit of joy and celebration that keeps the many cultures and geographies of India, held together,β Chhabra added.
