Bachchan, Lata Mangeshkar, Rajinikanth light candles, diyas to honour India's fight against COVID-19

Prominent personalities from the Indian film industry, including Amitabh Bachchan, Lata Mangeshkar, Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar, lit candles and lamps on Sunday, responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to show solidarity in the country's fight against coronavirus.

The prime minister on Friday urged people to switch off lights at their homes and light lamps, candles or turn on mobile phone torches for nine minutes at 9 pm on April 5 as a gesture to "challenge the darkness spread by the corona crisis".

Bachchan, 77, shared pictures of him lighting a torch, mentioning a line from his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan's poem in the caption.

"T 3492 - 'Hai andheri raat par diya jalaana kab maana hai (In the hour of darkness why not light a candle)' ... another epic poem of my Father and how visionary it has proven tonight for the #9PM9minute call. Will put up the entire poem by tomorrow on video!" Bachchan tweeted.

Mangeshkar shared photo of hers lighting a diya.

"On the call of honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi, come let''s light the lamp together," she captioned the picture.

Uploading a picture of him holding a candle on Twitter, Akshay captioned, "Together we stand and together we will come out of this dark phase. Till then stay strong, stay safe #9Baje9Minute."
Sharing a picture with his wife Latha, superstar Rajinikanth tweeted, "#StayHomeStaySafe #Solidarity #Unity #IndiaFightsCoronavirus."
Anil uploaded a video on the microblogging site and captioned it as: "All in this together."
Actor Anushka Sharma shared a picture of her lighting a lamp, along with cricketer-husband Virat Kohli, and wrote how she has prayed every day since "the turn of the recent events across the world."
Actor Vicky Kaushal shared a picture of candle diyas on Instagram Story and captioned it as "light and positivity to all!"