Alia Bhatt’s Instagram appeal for Assam flood relief, posted on Wednesday, is the latest example of a celebrity platform being used to mobilise public support and funding for a disaster response.

“It happens every year and it still catches us off guard,” she wrote, noting the recurring scale of the state’s monsoon flooding.

She added, “Assam needs immediate relief right now, and it’ll need support for the long road to recovery,” a framing that distinguishes between emergency response funding and the longer capital needed for rebuilding.

The floods have killed more than 60 people, with the toll later revised to 75 by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority.

An estimated 4.45 lakh people across 631 villages have been affected, with many families losing homes, land and livestock — losses that typically translate into a longer-term rebuilding and livelihoods-support need beyond the immediate relief phase.

Bhatt said she would use her reach over the coming days to direct followers to on-ground relief organisations, tagging posts with the hashtag #CircleOfHope — a model increasingly used to route donor attention toward vetted intermediaries.

She joins other Bollywood figures already engaged in the response, including Salman Khan, whose Being Human foundation has begun a multi-phase relief operation distributing food and essential supplies.

Bhumi Pednekar has also lent support, while Ayushmann Khurrana and Tahira Kashyap have contributed to the Assam Chief Minister’s Flood Relief Fund — a more institutional route for donations compared with foundation-led distribution.

The appeals come as government rescue and relief operations continue across the worst-affected districts of Assam.

The Assam floods have become an annual monsoon crisis in the state, with rivers including the Brahmaputra regularly breaching embankments and displacing large numbers of families across low-lying districts.

Bollywood celebrities have a long history of using their social media platforms to draw national attention to disaster relief efforts, often crediting on-ground organisations directly to help channel donations more effectively.

(Image: Photo: Prime Minister’s Office (GODL-India), Wikimedia Commons)