Nearly 150 mostly homeless and needy people turned up, to the Auckland City Mission in the CBD On Tuesday, May 21 to the charity lunch hosted by Lal Cares New Zealand, on the birthday celebrations of Malayalam cinema superstar Mohanlal.

Lal Cares New Zealand is an initiative of Mohanlal fans that was started in December 2016, which is a part of the Lal Cares charity organisation with a worldwide presence.

Lal Cares New Zealand started with ten members – now has 150 – and has conducted around ten charity events in New Zealand and India in the last two years. Team Lal Cares NZ also conducted a charity lunch at two places in Kerala, India.

The concept behind the charity organisation is to help the people and become a helping hand in their critical needs.

New Zealand is the eighth country in the world to have started Lal Cares Charity in the world. The organisation conducted two fan shows in New Zealand- Odiyan and Lucifer, which were received well by the community here.

Malayalam actor Mohanlal is one of the most revered actors in South India and is regarded as the Sachin Tendulkar of the Mollywood film industry with works not just in films but also philanthropic works and reaching out to the poor and the needy and has also earned the Mother Teresa award in 2014.

Lal Cares entered the Guinness Book of World records in 2015 for making the world’s largest charity box named wooden chest in association with Sharjah Charity International, which is working, based on UAE.

Actor Mohanlal with the Guinness Book of World Records certificate

“The event was a great success – we had a lot of people who benefitted from the charity lunch, and we aim to continue the legacy of Mohanlal’s philanthropic work in a however small manner in this part of the world,” Joint Secretary of Lal Cares New Zealand, Subhash Ragunathan told The Indian Weekender.

“The event was visualised by Steffy Kurian, a famous blogger from our community and we would thank Steffy for her commitment and video presentation,” Mr Raghunathan added.

Other executive members of the association are Sindin Prince as General Secretary and Alphy Jolly as vice-president.

The CEO of the Auckland City Mission lauded the efforts of Lal Cares for organising the lunch event and thanked members for their generosity towards the needy and the homeless.