Amitabh Bachchan donates his jeans to spark Parikrma’s Jeanaration

Amitabh Bachchan donates his jeans to spark Parikrma’s ‘Jeanaration’. India’s movie stars to feature their jeans on a global auction site for the first time. Parikrma’s Celebrity Jeans Auction presented by Embassy Group is an innovative campaign to raise funds to send the poorest children to the best colleges.

Mumbai, September 1: The biggest movie stars of Indian cinema are all set to go global through an auction of their jeans to raise funds for Parikrma, a non-profit organization based in Bangalore that provides under-served children access to world class education. Saturday evening saw megastar Amitabh Bachchan, author and social commentator Shobhaa De, Shukla Bose, Founder-CEO of Parikrma Humanity Foundation, and Shaina Ganapathy of Bangalore-based Embassy Group come together at the launch of Parikrma’s ‘Jeanaration’ held at Taj Lands End, Mumbai. The Celebrity Jeans Auction is a unique global initiative to raise funds to provide scholarships to the poorest children to access the best colleges.

In what would be one the most cherished moments of their lives, the children of Parikrma, speaking confidently in English, interacted with Amitabh Bachchan. As the iconic star gave his autographed jeans to the children of Parikrma, the revolution for equal education had begun.

Parikrma’s ‘Jeanaration’, presented by Embassy Group, one of India’s leading real estate developers, will be launched this coming October and is expected to run for 2 weeks. Parikrma is working with EBay to host this auction. The auction will feature jeans worn by Bollywood superstars Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Saif Ali Khan, Anushka Sharma, Shahid Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Kangana Ranaut. From the South, superstars like Suriya, Madhavan, Trisha, Dhanush, Rana Daggubati and Vikram have agreed to be a part of the Parikrma ‘Jeanaration’ campaign. Only 25 of the biggest star jeans will be auctioned. Already 17 stars have committed their jeans. Proceeds from the auction will be used to help fund college education for the children of Parikrma.

Parikrma was founded in 2003 as an in-depth program that addresses all aspects of a child’s life by providing ICSE English language education, nutrition, comprehensive healthcare and family care. The non-profit looks after children who come from slum communities and orphanages in Bangalore, from kindergarten to Grade 12 and then provides them with scholarships to go to college. So far, two batches of children are pursuing Engineering, Medicine, Law, Hotel Management and other courses at mainstream universities. Currently in its tenth year of operations, Parikrma is building a college scholarship fund to ensure that these children and hundreds more can continue to access world class college education. The Embassy Group has donated 3 acres of land to Parikrma on long lease, to build a Junior College.

Shobhaa De, spokesperson for the Parikrma Jeanaration global campaign said, “As they often say, it’s all in the jeans! Parikrma’s DNA is impeccable. And our movie stars have demonstrated the power of theirs, by parting with their favourite denims for a worthwhile cause. One pair of signed star jeans equals a life altering transformation for an under –served child. The revolution has just begun….”

“This is the first time we are taking the story of Parikrma to a global audience and already we are overwhelmed by the response from the film fraternity,” says Shukla Bose, Founder-CEO of Parikrma Humanity Foundation. “Our children are doing exceedingly well in college and with the funds we raise we will be able to get them into the very best universities and fuel the revolution for equal education even more. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the Embassy Group for supporting this program. They have been integral to our ambition of sending children to college. I also thank eBay for their fantastic support. Jeanaration, our most ambitious program could not have had a better start that having Mr. Amitabh Bachchan launch it. Our children are delighted that he is part of us now. All of us at Parikrma are grateful for his invaluable support.”

Jitu Virwani, Chairman and MD of Embassy Group said, “We are happy to partner with Parikrma in this novel initiative to bring together socially conscious celebrities to create a higher education fund for underprivileged children. For Embassy, this is an extension of our commitment to education for the underprivileged both at the school and college levels. We see this as an opportunity to work on this socially relevant initiative with HNIs and corporate professionals who are key clients and stakeholders of our world-class business parks, luxury residential developments and retail & hospitality spaces.”

The Taj Lands’ End has generously opened its doors to host the launch of Parikrma Jeaneration in support of Parikrma and its mission for equal education.

The jeans will travel across four on-ground events in cities around the world during the two week period of the online auction, celebrating the global reach of Indian cinema. There will be a launch event in Mumbai on October 27 followed by events in Chennai on October 30, Singapore on November 3 and San Francisco on November 10.

These jeans are collectors’ items and will be symbols of a revolution for equal education in India.