Popular characters of the movies directed by Oscar award winner and iconic film director, late Satyajit Ray will now help in spreading awareness on thalassemia.

Serum Thalassemia Prevention Federation (STPF), a Kolkata-based non- profit, dedicated to serving the people affected with various forms of thalassemia, has decided to adopt this unique initiative to spread awareness on the occasion of World Thalassemia Day, 8 May.

The STPF programme coordinator, Ruby Mondal said that their organisation will be flooding the city with posters related to the themes of various movies by Late Satyajit Ray.

“The posters will have rhymes based on themes of Ray’s movies spreading awareness about thalassemia. Actually, our organisation will be observing the current week as a thalassemia prevention period. The posters will be displayed in different corners of the city from north to south Kolkata from Tuesday and continue to be displayed till 8 May,” said Mondal.

From Tuesday to May 5 STPF will be organising street-corner plays at 14 different important junctions of the city with the message of awareness against the spread of thalassemia. On 7 May, there will be a central awareness gathering at the busy five- point crossing at Shyambazar in north Kolkata. The event will finally conclude on 8 May with a mass blood donation programme and felicitation of the city’s renowned physicians, who have been working constantly to fight thalassemia.

Ruby Mondal said this year the city is also celebrating the 101st birth anniversary of Satyajit Ray. “Any film-buff, not only in West Bengal, but nationally, relates with the characters of Ray’s movies. That is how we conceived the idea of spreading awareness through these special posters,” she said.

The important characters in Ray’s movies that are used in the posters include Goopy and Bagha in Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne and Apu in Apur Sansar, among others.

An official of the STPF said that although thalassemia has no root cure, its growth rate can be retarded by mass awareness and simple blood test, and since its inception in 2006, the STPF has initiated the awareness programmes by involving socially intellectual individuals from different segments of the society.