NEW DELHI: Renowned actor Naseeruddin Shah has strongly supported the telecast of a series on visually impaired and blind achievers on Doordarshan saying “people need to break away from the societal stereotypes and commonly held perceptions about disability and success or happiness.”

The actor, who acted as a blind school principal in the Sai Paranjpye-directed film Sparsh and is presenting the series Nazar ya Nazariya on Doordarshan, said, “India has over 63 million visually impaired people, of which around eight million are completely blind. Most of these people are often marginalised, not given equal opportunities for education, career and employment; they are also ill informed, and not stimulated to explore their potential. The blind and visually impaired community is often viewed as liabilities as opposed to potential human resource for a developing country.”

“This is the main message we are trying to drive through this television series and we hope that we are able to achieve this goal by reaching out to more and more people of this country.”

Commenting on his association, Shah said, “When I did Sparsh in the early 1980s, I had the opportunity of interacting with several visually impaired individuals. I realised that the problem is not with the Nazar it is with the Nazariya.”

Doordarshan has been airing the special series on real-life visually impaired and blind achievers in India across various fields in the programme which is telecast every Saturday at 9.30 am.

Each episode of the television series features real-life stories of blind and visually impaired achievers while addressing diverse themes throughout the course of the 13-part series. The themes will range from education, employment, business, art and culture to marriage and relationships.