NEW YORK CITY, NY (TIP): On Sunday Jan 14th, Press conference was hosted at the Indian Consulate in New York announcing the Launch of the much awaited and the historic North American Tour of Bollywood Music Legend Pritam Chakraborty dedicated to the cause of Opioid Epidemic awareness in America. With more than 600 songs in 120 movies to the Music Maestro #Pritam Credit, this tour will be the grandest Bollywood musical journey America has ever seen with eight singers and extraordinary performers in seven cities across North America.

“We are extremely pleased that Legendary Pritam Chakraborty is dedicating this historic tour to the awareness of opioid Epidemic Awareness, which as we all know is America #1 Crisis and a national emergency as declared by our President. With more than 500,000 American deaths, the message need to reach all youth to abstain from drugs. Indian kids are especially susceptible given the high pressure to succeed and we are glad that Pritam Da is so involved in this cause.

Said Dr Sanjay Gupta, President American Pain Association who along with Dr. Kavita Gupta, President AAPI East Coast, Karl Karla with Live2u and Anand and Sona Dawda from Cinema on stage organized this press conference.

Dr Sanjay Gupta thanked Ambassador Chakravorty to be part of this initiative from the very beginning last year when Dr Gupta presented the initiative to the now New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Ambassador Chakravorty at Dr. Gupta home along with Dr. Kavita Gupta.

Ambassador Chakravorty speaking at this occasion stated that drugs are killing more people than traffic accidents and guns in America and is a major concern. He felt that unfortunately this issue is not discussed and kept under a rug and has become a silent epidemic. We need more and more awareness and this tour will be a great platform to reach Indian Diaspora. He thanked Dr. Sanjay and Kavita Gupta in taking this initiative and felt that involvement of Bollywood is one of the best way to penetrate young minds and hearts.

Dr Kavita Gupta stated that we have more than 100,000 Indian Physicians in America and together we can help eradicate this deadly epidemic which is affecting our kids and youth. We all need to take it seriously and put whatever effort we can, as safety and future of our next generation is at stake. We have one 9/11 happening every 3 weeks and it is time to stop this before more youth is killed.

Music Legend Pritam Da stated “I am extremely happy to be associated with this extremely important cause and will help in whatever way I can with this tour and even otherwise in fighting this epidemic. He felt that wrong messages are being given to young minds about drugs and using drugs is becoming a part of popular and Hip culture. A large part of this epidemic is due to ignorance of harmful effects of drugs.”

Pritam talk about the 8 singers who will be singing many of his compositions which are the top Bollywood hits. The singers include Harshdeep Kaur, Nakash Aziz, Shilpa Rao, , Sreerama Chandra, Antara Mitra, Shalmali Kholgade,  Amit Mishra and Amanat Ali.

Some of the movies to Pitam Crdeit  credit include Dhoom, Dhoom 2,Goal Mal 3  Bajrangi Bhaijaan Phantom and Dilwale Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Jagga Jasoos, Badtameez Dil, Tigers, Raabta, Tubelight Jab Harry Met Sejal,  Dangal,and the list goes on.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta thanked Cinema on Stage founders Anand and Sona Dawda for conceptualizing and producing  this amazing and historic show and Karl Karla and the entire National team for bringing the tour across North America. The national team includes Jaweria Khan , Raj Uppal ,Gaurang Patel, Jagmohan Nanda Bobby Bajaj Ajay Mittal Padma Mishra Dr. Bharat Patel Manish K Sood Bikram Jeet Singh  Ray Sharma and Gaurav Sharma.

PRITAM National Tour  in North America will take place in April 2018 as follows- April 6th Chicago, 7th New Jersey, 8th Toronto, 13th Dallas, 14th Los Angeles, 20th Washington D.C., 21st San Jose.

Mr Karl Karla thanked the entire national team for worked hard in making the dream to reality and bringing one of a kind mega show to American public.

Mr Anand and Sona Dowda mentioned that production of the legendary Pritam show was a longtime dream and it is an amazing feeling finally see it as a mega show.

The press conference was compered by Mamta Narula from Ultimate media and Dr. Kavita Gupta. The Press Conference was also attended by Physicians and community leaders along with media representatives.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta in his closing remarks felt that wrong messages from Hollywood and Bollywood are part responsible for creating this epidemic and now they can play a major role in reversing it. India is a country with a large young population and this epidemic is growing fast in India, but nobody wants to talk about it . It is sad to see the country of strong characters like swami Vivekananda and Narendra Modi falling prey to wrong messages. We are happy to see the support of Hollywood, Bollywood Artists and Sports Athletes in this initiative  and hopefully together we will be able to turn this deadly tide .

(Press Release)