Sundeep Bhutoria speaks exclusively to Times during lockdown on his ongoing and future endeavours

Social and cultural activist Sundeep Bhutoria is widely known for his activities and philanthropy. He not only hosts the best get-togethers but also can be seen at ground zero implementing social welfare projects for the children, women and the elderly. Currently, he has spread his socio-cultural activities across 35 cities in India and also gone overseas. A frequent traveller, wildlife lover, he delivers lectures in top Universities around the globe.Apart from authors, performing art personalities, he also maintains cordial and friendly relations with diplomats and politicians of all leanings. He is an author, columnist and a blogger who has successfully campaigned with the Government to change policies that had inconvenienced parents to take their infants to the passport office; or very recently to save the childhood of kindergarteners from the onslaught of online classes. His appeal to the Prime Minister of India to provide support to the folk artistes and craftsmen of India facing immense hardship due to Covid 19 pandemic prompted swift action by the Government to enlist those craftsmen who were earlier left out. Being an animal lover, Mr Bhutoria has adopted a Tiger and housed other animals which include a dog-Casper, a horse-Kahlua, a cow-Ganga and a calf-Gaurra

Honestly, lockdown period has been the most hectic time of my life, unexpectedly. We live in an unprecedented time and it is unfortunate that everywhere around there are job cuts and people are getting laid off. However, we have been able to create more job opportunities during the lockdown and added more manpower to our team. Prior to lockdown, our Foundation was operating in 35 cities and at present, we have extended to five more cities and our Ehsaas women network which is a women empowerment initiative of our Foundation has also grown along with our international activities. We have also collaborated with many like-minded NGOs and overseas universities. The work for project Pronam-run in collaboration with Kolkata Police which is an outreach programme for the welfare of elderly citizens also keeps me on my toes during this difficult time, as our senior citizens are absolutely homebound. In between all this, I was also able to put together a book titled Calcuttascape during lockdown which grew out of my blogs

Calcuttascape is compiled from my blogs which has also been printed as columns and featured in a few newspapers a decade back. The first idea for this book took root in 2013, before I knew it seven years had passed me by, as my busy schedule keep pushing it back. In fact, the foreword by Kunal Basu and Jaya Bachchan were also written in 2013. Finally, when the coronavirus pandemic slowed down our lives and forced us into lockdown, I got down to sifting through all the columns and putting this book together. While the column started a decade back, many of the issues are as pertinent today as they were then. I have chosen more than 100 articles for the book, covering themes that continue to matter. The topics discussed in my column struck a chord with the readers and their feedback prompted me to put together this book, to reach a wider audience. And yes, the book is doing well.

Yes, of course. I travel a lot, almost on a weekly basis and I don’t remember having stayed in one place for such a long period. However, this lockdown has given me a chance to spend quality time with my family and my daughter Aavya. Certainly, the lockdown has been a learning period, when it comes to my daughter, she has taught me a lot of patience. I also learned about Peppa pig from her, and also staying at home I witnessed how much a mother can do for a child.


It was inspired by Tom Foolery ‘The Great Realisation’ that makes a positive future seems tangible. It was very touching. We live in a very unprecedented time with darkness looming on us and hence wanted to look at the optimistic angle to this situation and instil hope in my daughter and other children of her age and to our society that this pandemic too shall pass. So I went ahead and requested poet and bollywood lyricist Manoj Muntashir and Neelam Muntashir along with Grammy award winner Vishwa Mohan Bhatt to come on board to spread positivity. They happily agreed and Neelam helped me with putting these thoughts together in beautiful words and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt along with his son Saurabh Bhatt orchestrated the music for it, and that's how ‘Once Upon A Time’ for my daughter Aavya happened. The audio-visual has over 10 million views on various social media platforms put together

Although personally I am not that techno-friendly and it’s a team effort and a lot of work goes into it. We had initially started streaming our virtual events on Zoom, after which we start using Cisco Webex and now from this month onwards we have our own portal where we host webinars and meetings online.
We are so blessed to have so many personalities from different walks of life graced our events and the response is overwhelming across the globe.

Pronam at present has about 19,000 senior citizens as its members. I am so grateful and thankful to Kolkata police for working round the clock in helping our senior citizens, from providing them medical assistance, taking care of their essential commodities, safety and security etc. Our honourable Chief Minister has also encouraged the welfare of senior citizens time to time. Our Pronam executives are also putting their time and energy in meeting the needs of our senior citizens with the help of Kolkata Police and some of them are stayed in the office and worked continuously during lockdown and Amphan. I believe there is a need for initiating more projects like Pronam for the elderly in India. We from the Bengal - a Kolkata-based NGO that brings together eminent citizens, thought leaders and achievers to promote various socio-cultural and welfare activities are committed to such activities in the state.

Well, the first thing my friends and acquaintances asked me when they call is which city are you in, because of my constant travelling, in fact, I was scheduled to be in New York prior to the lockdown. I do miss travelling but desk work keeps me really busy and at the moment I am exploring more opportunities to curate significant and impactful online programmes not only to entertain but to support various artists and performers as well. Our lockdown live programme which we started after the lockdown is successfully running in seven states in India now with our associates.

Haven’t really thought about it. As of now, apart from regular desk work, I am working on another book on wildlife which I hope will be out by this winter.

Well, I don’t claim that! But yes, I do believe in making friends and maintaining relations. I have friends across the globe in all segments of society. To be honest, I never make enemies. Those who become enemies, do so by their own choice.

The lockdown has taught us invaluable life lessons, one is, we have to focus on what we need and not what we want. We must have realised by now that we need very little to survive and to live our daily lives in comparison to what we want in name of life. As the greatest poet of our life Neeraj said “”. I also feel that the lockdown has given us an opportunity to rediscover ourselves and increase our creative output.

Your work should speak for itself and I don’t believe in using my own organisation for my personal visibility. Your work should be more visible than you as an individual. As for me not accepting awards, there is much more to be done before I can accept an award. For every award I’ve been offered, I’ve always found people who are more deserving than me. Also, no achievement is accomplished individually; it is always a team effort. I strongly believe that it is your work which has to be visible not your individuality. If your work is visible you will get visibility on your own.

No, not at all. I do have good relations with political leaders across party line as I support individuals in politics rather than the party. I would like to put all rumours again to rest regarding speculations of me joining politics or any political party. I have no interest in joining politics or any political party in the future, period.

No, not at all. I have very good friends in Tollywood. I did a cameo on my friend Arindam Sil’s film with Mithun Chakraborty years back, and in fact, in his upcoming film Maya Kumari I have a cameo with Rituparna Sengupta.


We are doing Durga puja this year for sure and shall adhere to all the new norms indicated by authorities. In addition to other things, we are also working on an online Durga puja show.

Well, my friend once told me that your presence itself in many places is a cause of worry to many and to stop thinking about it. What I can say is, in my field of work, you can love me or hate me but you cannot ignore me.