Music maestro AR Rahman and his son, singer AR Ameen, received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a social media update posted on Monday. Rahman, 54, shared a selfie with 18-year-old Ameen on his Instagram page. “Vaccinated #1stjabdone #covishield have you?” the Oscar winner wrote alongside the photo. The post has garnered more than 3 lakh likes. Ameen shared the same selfie on his account and captioned the post “#vaccinated”.
Several other celebrities, including Mohanlal, Nagarjuna Akkineni, superstar Rajinikanth and Puneeth Rajkumar among others, have shared photos of themselves getting vaccinated and also urged followers eligible for vaccination to take the prescribed doses of COVID-19 vaccines as a preventative measure to help us fight the novel coronavirus.
The Union government launched the nationwide drive in March this year to vaccinate everyone above 60 years of age and those between 45 and 59 years with co-morbidities. From May 1, the Union and state governments started vaccinating people aged between 18 and 44. According to the Union Health Ministry’s data updated on Monday, India reported 1,00,636 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest in 61 days, taking the infection tally to 2,89,09,975, while the number of active cases dropped to 14,01,609.
On the professional front, Rahman has been busy promoting his debut production venture 99 Songs. The movie was bankrolled by Rahman under his home banner YM Movies. Starring debutant actors Ehan Bhat and Edilsy Vargas in the lead roles, 99 Songs hit the big screens on April 16 and had its OTT premiere on May 21. The movie has been streaming on Netflix and Jio Cinema. Apart from producing the movie, Rahman was also on board as co-writer and composer for the Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy directorial.
Rahman has been roped in as the music composer for a number of upcoming movies including the Dhanush, Akshay Kumar and Sara Ali Khan starrer Atrangi Re, director Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan, Gautam Menon’s Nadhigalilae Neeradum