Actor Bobby Chakraborty started the anti-addiction campaign for kids to bring about a great change in society.

The Kolkata Mail correspondent Priyanka Dutta caught up with Bobby Chakraborty in an exclusive conversation about his anti-addiction campaign. Excerpts..

When and how did you come up with the anti-addiction campaign idea for kids?

Bobby Chakraborty: To raise awareness against addiction has been a mission since my childhood, as I have seen death and too much destruction in my family as a child, through the addictive lifestyle of my younger uncle, who died at the age of 29 years! I had realized, early on as a child, that it’s never that one person who gets destroyed through cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs…it’s the whole family that walks the dark path of destruction, with that person’s wrong choices in life. I realized another harsh truth too that education, money, love, security, talent, etc, which my uncle had in abundance, are not the criteria that can stop one person from getting destroyed by the evil force of addiction. It’s always the inability to rule one’s own mind that causes the downfall of a person. That realization gave birth to the title of my awareness program, ‘I AM THE KING OF MY MIND’, which is the mantra of my life, too.

But raising an awareness against such popular evils/trends is ‘easier said than done’! I tried in my school life, in my past profession as a marine engineer, even as an actor since my onscreen debut in 2002 …but no one would pay attention to what I had to say! It was only after 2007, when I became a household name after acting in the late Mr.Ravi Ojha’s superhit daily soap ‘Khela’, that I could sense the tables of attention turning towards me. Without any ado, post 2008, I started my anti-addiction mission in a big way, but it was only from 2012 that I could turn the campaigns into an organized format, which you see today.

What are the key components of this campaign?

Bobby Chakraborty: This is a 2 hours 30 mins, PREVENTIVE awareness program against all sorts of addiction that a child is exposed to, within the proximity of the homefront(smoking, alcoholism, smart phones) and against all kinds of harmful social trends that a child is getting trapped into(rampant use of abusive language, online obscenity to garner views/followers/publicity on social media, online gambling through video games, bullying, ragging etc.). Many schools now are requesting me to address students as young as the 3rd grade onwards, but ideally, I request the institutions to arrange it for students of 7^th grade upwards.

Was it easy to communicate with the kids in the initial days of the program?

Bobby Chakraborty: It’s never easy to persuade anyone against popular beliefs that are ingrained in one’s conscience or one finds absolutely NORMAL, even if they are harmful, since birth. It’s always a tough battle to fight against the trend or to raise a voice against herd mentality, hence I call the students, who would want to fight with me, to make this society a better place, as my ‘SOLDIERS’.

But I have always loved challenges in life, where unconventionally doing things has always been a sort of divine order from up above. This tough fight as you can see has been consistently being fought by me for nearly two decades now, with hundreds of life changing stories from my soldiers, who I thought did/could communicate with the absolute priority of looking after ones HEALTH, which proportionately looks over one’s CAREER and which in turn makes an impact on the FAMILY…the HCF formula of life as I call it.

Are all the kids supportive of the campaign? Or are there a few who dislike it?

Bobby Chakraborty: Firstly, I am doing this to please no one…I am doing this to impress no one…I am doing this to prove nothing to no one…I am doing this with a clear concept in me, right from the onset, that it will be a monstrous job to gather support from anyone, kids or adults, because the society by and large is immersed and lost in hive-mindedness…blindly copying others. I have made myself clear that I don’t and can’t expect anything supportive from anyone in this blind world of pack mentality. There are few and far in between, like me, who are out of the herd or the pack, but then again, they don’t have an iota of social responsibility. So in this scenario, kids will automatically be just a by-product of the social system built by the adults in herds.

 I just train my mind or myself to put forth my way of living a healthy life, my way of using my God gifted intelligence, and my way of applying the knowledge I acquired through my education, in my journey of life, in front of the kids in my sessions, with 100% conviction, care, and affection for them.

I do this for free, and I tell the kids how strongly I believe that they are my family; otherwise, I would have made this social work of mine into a business/scam like everyone else. Rest is upon them to decide. They are free to like or dislike ‘Bobby Dada’, who I believe is their strongest well-wisher after their parents.

Have you faced any challenges during this campaign?

Bobby Chakraborty: As elaborated in the above discussion…gathering supportive, like-minded, socially responsible people, out of the herd…who would step out of their La-La land of denial, their ivory towers or their cocoon and would think about the betterment of the society, SELFLESSLY…is the one, only and the biggest challenge.

So even if I don’t charge a single penny from anyone…even if this program has been happening for around two decades, in over 470 schools/colleges/universities/red light areas/orphanages…all around the world…even if this has garnered numerous regional/national/global recognitions and awards from our Governor of West Bengal/Vice President of India/West Bengal Police/C.I.D./His Excellency Dalai Lama etc… the biggest challenge will always be to awaken those socially irresponsible people from their slumber…it will always be the biggest hurdle to expect help to spread this much needed awareness from the herd, who themselves are knee deep into the same vices, against which I am raising a voice.

What new elements will you add to the campaign to keep it interesting in the future?

Bobby Chakraborty: With every session, I feel the campaign has evolved…adding new elements and topics that need to be addressed, as per the sociological evolution of our system. Back when I started it nearly two decades ago, the vices that needed to be talked about were limited to smoking, alcoholism, substance abuse, bullying, ragging, etc.

But now with the advent of smart phones, social media, easy access to pornography, violent gaming platforms, online gambling, misuse of AI  and various other mediums of disguised substance abuse, a whole new dark and parallel universe has opened up, where self respect, shame, social awareness, civic sense, social responsibility, morality, humanity, manners etc. have struck rock bottom!

The main problem is ‘internet reaching everywhere without education’! The children are facing the maximum brunt of it as they have an impressionable mind.

As per the element of interest in the session, I try to entertain the kids as much as I would like to guide them. I call it ‘infotainment’.

Do you plan to take this campaign to the national level?

Bobby Chakraborty: This global campaign has reached various states of India as well as abroad, too…some of the national campaigns which you have gracefully and thoughtfully featured in your publication as well. There is no plan as such. Planning brings expectations on board. I live without that in a world filled with hibernating individuals in their own utopian world!

I believe the issues/problems that a child is facing in a school I visited in Sunderban are universal for a child in Kolkata or Madhya Pradesh or Karnataka, or the USA today. My vast experience with millions of children all around the world taught me that. That’s what globalization has done too. Made the world a smaller as well as an unsafe place for all the children everywhere! Hence, I religiously send proposals to educational institutions all over, on a regular basis, with the hope that I will find those few socially responsible educationists alive on this planet, on the same page as mine.

How have you changed as a person while conducting these campaigns?

Bobby Chakraborty: Oh! Yes, I have changed for the better! 100%!! This work has taught me to live life without expecting any thankfulness from anyone. That’s a very strong and empowering feeling, which brings you inner peace and happiness without anyone’s help or influence. In these nearly two decades of my AAC (anti-addiction campaign), I have been an active part of hundreds of life-altering stories from children of various families globally. Some have thanked me, some didn’t care to. I have met the strangest and the most blunt adults, who tried to give me a vibe of doing a favour to me by collaborating with me. I have come across some of the most uncouth individuals who want to keep these burning issues under wraps and foolishly paint a hunky-dory picture all around! I carry the deepest/darkest secrets of many of all ages, which they have divulged to me in good faith, as a well-wisher.

I mean, I have gone through a gamut of overwhelming experiences with a variety of junior/senior individuals, which has made me a wiser, stronger, focused, more humble, and a more satisfied person. The satisfaction being, the opportunity that God Almighty is giving me, through this work, to give back to society…by doing something worthwhile…in this shallow, hollow, short, and selfish lifespan.