Ice bucket challenge hits B-Town, celebs get chills

Mumbai: After amassing global popularity, the ALS ice bucket challenge, which involves dumping buckets of ice water over one's head to spread awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, has found patrons in Bollywood.

From Akshay Kumar and Abhishek Bachchan to Dia Mirza and Bipasha Basu - Hindi film actors are following in the footsteps of globally popular names like George W. Bush, Bill Gates, Stephen King, Christiano Ronaldo, Lady Gaga, Robert Pattinson, Zac Efron, Vin Diesel, Will Smith, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hugh Jackman and Mickey Rourke, to take the online trend with gusto.

Riteish Deshmukh is said to have taken the lead among B-Town celebs after being 'nominated' by tennis star Sania Mirza. He then picked Abhishek Bachchan, Akshay Kumar and Sidharth Malhotra, leading to a chain of celebrities who were happy to douse themselves in ice water for a global cause.

The challenge involves people experiencing a bucket full of ice water on video, posting it on social media and then nominating others to do the same - all in an effort to raise awareness for ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.

People can either accept the challenge or make a donation to an ALS Charity of their choice, or do both.

This viral sensation requires people to use the hash tag #IceBucketChallenge, and it has attracted thousands of followers across the world.

As of Thursday (Aug 21), the ALS Association had received $41.8 million in donations compared to $2.1 million during the same time period last year (July 29 to Aug 21), according to its official website.

These donations have come from existing donors and 739,275 new donors to the Association.

Bollywood is doing its spreading its bit of awareness.

Some more names from Hindi filmdom who've undertaken the challenge include Sidharth Malhotra, Daler Mehndi, Mandira Bedi, Sophie Choudry, Sunidhi Chauhan and Ashish Chowdhary.

Mandira had a personal reason to take it up.

"I did the #IceBucketChallenge because sadly, #ALS or Motor Neuron Disease is an illness that I lost a member of my family to," Mandira, who nominated Karan Wahi, Vishal Dadlani and Sohail Khan, posted on her Twitter page Thursday.

Rahul Bose tweeted: "Been chosen by Rohan Bopanna for #IceBucketChallenge to raise money/awareness for ALS. Hv decided not to waste clean water, but will donate."

Others like Lisa Ray, Sonakshi Sinha and Sophie did their bit in spreading knowledge about ALS.

"#ALS is a fatal, little known about disease. A cure is needed so take up the #icebucketchallenge &/or donate here - http://www.alsa.org/donate/," tweeted Sophie.

Sonakshi took the challenge without being nominated by anyone.

"Nobody nominated me? But I still took the challenge. And now I nominate you ALL to do what I just did. If you've already showered, skip the ice water. If you haven't, go ahead by all means. BUT please Go to www.als.org to donate," she posted.

While the challenge has been thrown open to Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, they are yet to experience the chills.