New Delhi, May 3
‘Dirty Picture’ star Vidya Balan will now help the government script a “clean picture” as brand ambassador of a sanitation campaign for the Rural Development Ministry.

Vidya, in the Capital today to collect her first National Award for her role in the ‘Dirty Picture’, will be part of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, the re-structured version of the Total Sanitation Campaign. As the first brand ambassador of the Rural Development Ministry, she will appear in ad campaigns to propagate construction and use of toilets.

Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, who roped in Vidya, hoped that her involvement would make the campaign to end open defecation a “national obsession”.

“This is a clean picture (for Vidya Balan),” Ramesh said, when mediapersons asked Vidya if people would like her in her role to put an end to the practice of open defecation, an issue closely related to women's health and security.

Vidya seemed excited about her new assignment. “For an actor, what can be a better thing than doing a ‘Dirty Picture’ on screen and a ‘clean picture’ off screen. I think this role will work a lot because we are working on a national movement,” she said.

“I think it is a matter of great honour to become the brand ambassador of a sanitation campaign. It needs to become a national obsession. I am ready to (do it) in my capacity. I am convinced," she added.

“Unless we develop a sense of shame, develop a sense of anger... it is really going to be pathetic. It is not a government programme, it is going to be a people’s programme,” Ramesh said.