Vijay, surya, Jyothika and Madhavan for a documentary film Herova Zerova – Pictures, Stills and the documentary video

In a bid to reduce primary school dropout rate and eradicate child labour in the state, the Tamil Nadu Government, an NGO and four Tamil film stars have joined hands to send across a message to the society on the evils.In the five-minute documentary, titled “Herova Zerova” (are you a Hero or Zero), actor couple Surya-Jothika, and top stars Vijay and Madhavan are seen speaking against child labour and stressing the need for the young hands to hold pens and pencils rather than the spanner and chisel.

The documentary, produced by Agaram Foundation, has big names from South Indian cinema behind the screen too. Popular music director Harris Jayaraj has scored the music while noted cinematographer, K V Anand is behind the camera.

Sreekar Prasad has donned the editor’s role. The NGO has made the five minute documentary for the Ministry of School Education which in turn would be beaming it on all television channels to create public awareness on the issues, School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu said. Later, the minister told PTI that the dropout percentage in the primary school level (class one-five) in the state was 1.4 per cent and the upper primary level (class six-eight) 2.4 per cent. The campaign will be a continuous process so that there is considerable awareness on school education, he added.