Being Sonu Sood: A Peek Into The Life Of The Entrepreneur And Actor Last month Sonu Sood turned entrepreneur, but there's a lot more that the actor does to help people.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Actor and philanthropist Sonu Sood in a video on social media had teased that he would be making a big announcement on June 7, and the rumour mills started guessing that it could be anything from him bagging another Hollywood movie to joining politics. On the said date, turned out that he would be turning entrepreneur, announcing the launch of the new social media app Explurger, with him being the co-founder and the founder and CEO being his friend Jitin Bhatia.
Explurger is a social app meant for connecting, sharing and making friends. The user can add miles and places to their automatic travelogue, create a bucket list, get rewarded for being active and lots more.
Sood said that on other apps, there is a gap between the amount of time we spend on them and what we get in return. "When we are travelling, can we tell the number of miles we have travelled or which locations we have visited? Then there is the blue tick, for which people struggle so much for. To cater to all those needs we thought of creating a made in India app, which will cater to people all across the globe. The more time you spend on the app, the more benefits and rewards you get," explained Sood.
SEE VIDEO: Sonu Sood On His New App, Future Projects And Fitness
With the launch of Explurger, Sood enters the world of entrepreneurship, after becoming recognized as someone who helped thousands of individuals during the lockdown. Sood had arranged transport services (including flights) and food for the underprivileged and had started the Ghar Bhejo initiative with his childhood friend Neeti Goel. He also offered support to whoever needed help – whether it was arranging mobiles for online schools or receiving medical treatment. But what about his future plans for continuing the social good he has generated? "Helping the migrants and those who are underprivileged was possible because of social media. As far as my social work aspect is concerned I am planning a lot on that front such as opening orphanages, hospitals and old age homes," said Sood.
But even as we spoke during the launch, or as you read this feature, instances of Sood's charitable activities keep popping up all over social media, especially because of their uniqueness. On June 12, Sahil Khan, an Indian who was stuck in Thailand had tagged Sood in a tweet, asking for his help. He was caught in a job scam where the employers had seized his passport and he had no money to be able to travel home. Sood sent him the air tickets, and within just a few hours Khan tweeted a photo of him back in India. Another instance was of Sood helping Chaumukhi Kumari, a child born with a rare condition. Kumari was born with four legs and four hands, and after receiving funding from Sood she was able to undergo a surgery. All this is done via the Sonu Sood Charity Foundation.
Acts of kindness and financial help like these ensure that Sood has cultivated a loyal list of fans who show their love to him in different ways. The most recent one being where a man named Ajmer Alam drew a portrait of the actor while being blindfolded. The video went viral, and Sood acknowledged it too in one his tweets. But helping individuals is not the only feature that presides over his Instagram feeds, there's a fun element too. Case in point being when Sood met former wrestler The Great Khali and did a amusing video interaction with him where he showed people a 'trick' to be able to look taller than Khali.
As far as movies are concerned, his latest was the portrayal of Chand Bardai, the court poet of King Prithviraj Chauhan in Chandraprakash Dwivedi's film Samrat Prithviraj, starring Akshay Kumar in the titular role. His fitness levels, however, are a constant, whether it's him pumping iron, or people being awed of him successfully doing the human flag pose on a pole. Which is why, towards the end of the interaction, we were curious about how many push ups Sood could do. His reply? "Whatever you can do, just multiply it by 10." Unfortunately, Sood was right.
