Care for your heritage, urges Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

New Delhi, March 9 (IANS) Bollywood filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, who is associated with the tourism ministry's 'Atithi Devo Bhavah' campaign, Monday urged Indians to uphold and preserve the culture, tradition and heritage of the country.

'We have a lovely country handed to us from generation after generation... and we have messed it up. We have completely undone the thousand years of heritage. When we urge the youth to do something, they ask what has the government done,' said Mehra at an event here Monday.

'What they need to understand is you are the government. The youth need to decide how the world should look at India,' he added.

Mehra has also directed a TV commercial, featuring actor Aamir Khan and scripted by Prasoon Joshi, for the ministry's campaign. He says he was extremely excited when he was approached to work towards the cause.

'This was a great opportunity to communicate something to the public that would do good to the country. The writer and director in me was excited to communicate to the public what needs to be done,' he said.

'That is why when the ministry approached us, we decided to endorse the initiative and not charge any money to create these films. This is our way of giving back something to the nation and I hope we are successful in creating and raising the bar of awareness,' Mehra added.

The filmmaker, whose latest offering has been the Abhishek Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor-starrer 'Delhi-6', which revived the old world charm of the Chandni Chowk area of the capital, is also part of the face-to-face programme of the campaign.

As part of the programme, Mehra visited select areas here including various PVR multiplexes to interact with the people and give them insights into the initiative.

Apart from Mehra, Tourism Secretary Sujit Banerjee, and Joint Secretary Leena Nandan were also present on the occasion. A poster for the campaign which would be put up across various places in the country was also unveiled.