From left, Shahrukh Khan, filmmaker Karan Johar, actress Rani Mukherjee presenting a check of Rs. 11.5 million ($255,555) to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh toward the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund in New Delhi on Jan 4. (Photo: Courtesy, Press Information Bureau)

MUMBAI : While some Bollywood celebrities have already reached out to victims of the tsunami disaster in India, others are still shell-shocked and wondering how they should help.

Raveena Tandon said: “I can’t believe so much human life has been destroyed in one sweep. It’s just too much to digest. We all must come forward to do our best.”

Filmmaker Subhash Ghai, for one, made the first move by donating Rs. 2.5 million ($55,555). “It’s the least one can do considering the immensity of the tragedy.

“I’d like me and my colleagues to do a lot more, including arrange charity premieres of my new film ‘Kisna,’” said Ghai

Actress Poonam Dhillon has been sending SMS messages to all her friends to help victims in Sri Lanka — where more than 30,000 people have died — after former cricketer Arjuna Ranatunga sent her an appeal. Now she is doing her best to help in cash or kind.

She has already managed to get support from friends like Naresh Goyal and Kiran Kumar.

Bollywood’s nightingale Lata Mangeshkar said: “This sort of calamity shakes our faith in every law of nature. Little children, women and entire families have perished. We must help...yes we must.” Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s sister, film editor Bela Sehgal, was caught in Chennai with her family when the tsunami hit the city. She was a first-hand witness to human lives being destroyed in one swoop. She says she will get nightmares for the rest of her life.

Tamil actor Madhavan has a strange tale to tell. “Just two nights before it happened, my wife dreamt that we were all being swept away by waves of water. I told her all about a tsunami, little knowing that it would hit us so soon.

“The enormity of the tragedy in Chennai is unbelievable. People who had gone out for walks on the beach haven’t returned home.

All of us need to put our hands and resources together and make sure we help in healing the wounds,” said Madhavan. But what can Bollywood do? Many have no clue.

Shahid Kapur said: “We were supposed to shoot for Boney Kapoor’s ‘Milenge Milenge’ at an island off Thailand.

The schedule got canceled at the last minute because of the premiere for my film ‘Dil Mange More’ on Dec. 23.

Now I hear the hotel where we were supposed to stay is no more! This is a tragedy beyond words. We all need to do what we can. I just have to be told what’s to be done.”

Abhishek Bachchan said, “We want to help in every way possible, monetarily or otherwise. If there’s going to be a charity show, as I hear there might be, then of course I’m part of it.”

There’s all-round uncertainty in the film industry regarding the next move.

Rahul Bose said, “At a time like this when a full-blown crisis stares in our face it would be more than heartless to turn away. It would be criminal. I can’t afford to donate Rs. 10 million ($222,222), or whatever. But I am going to help in every way possible.”

The industry does have a heart. Many stars cancelled their parties and their mandatory year-end trips to Goa to usher in the New Year.

‘Uff Ka Jadoo Mohabbat Hai’ star Sammir Dattani said, “I was supposed to be in Goa. But I have canceled the trip. It just does not seem right.”