Sonu Sood on Humanity, Love & the Future of Technology | A Deep Conversation with Shekhar Natarajan

**Sonu Sood** (0:00)
When you go to their house, they have nothing, but as soon as they see you, they smile. As soon as they see you, they say, I will bring milk, I will bring food for you. And we are bringing food for them, they say, no, we will feed you first. So, that's the one, that's the real one.

**Shekhar Natarajan** (0:19)
You reminded an entire nation what it means to be human.
Sonu, before we begin, I need to say something. March 2020, the world stopped, systems collapsed. Millions of people became invisible, walking highways with bleeding feet, sleeping hungry, carrying their children because there were no buses, no trains, no hope. While the powerful held press conferences, while everyone talked about helping, someday, you started helping. You saw a mother who hadn't eaten in three days and you fed her. You saw a father walking 900 kilometers and you got them home. You saw a 15-year-old girl peddling her disabled father 1200 kilometers on a bicycle. And you just didn't help her. You saw her. While others protected themselves, you were carrying migrants on your shoulders, literally. While others worried about getting infected, you were driving buses, answering the call at 3 a.m., showing up for them. And here's what breaks me. You didn't do all of this for cameras. You did it because you saw suffering that you couldn't look away from. Because somewhere inside you, there is something most of us have lost, the inability to be comfortable while others are in pain. Do you know what you did? You reminded an entire nation what it means to be human. Not rich or poor, not upper caste or lower caste, just being a human. The kind who sees another human suffering and thinks, that could be me, that could be my mother, and acts not tomorrow, right now. And there's a word for that. It's called love. Not romantic love, not transactional love, pure, unconditional, urgent love. The kind that makes a girl pedal for 1200 kilometers for her father. The kind that makes a mother go hungry so her children can eat. The kind that made you drop everything to help people you never met, and you would never see them again. That's the love that makes us human. In 2020, you showed us what it looks like. Today, we're going to ask you some hard questions about what happens if that love has to live for 300 years, about whether compassion survives when suffering never ends, about whether heroes like you can keep being heroes forever. And before we do all of this, whatever you say today, whatever doubts you admit, whatever exhaustion you reveal, none of it changes who you are as a person. You are the man who remembered to be human. And that's enough. That's more than enough. Thank you for being here, Sonu. And now, let's talk about what it means to be human for 300 years. Today, we have a very special guest amongst us. I will tell you a story before I start this. I took a taxi today morning.
So, I stopped at Taj. I called the taxi driver. The taxi driver came. He said, Brother, I don't like this ride. I asked, why? He said, another man has come at 5 am. He is sitting there. But his car broke down.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:34)
He should have got this ride.

**Shekhar Natarajan** (4:36)
But I got this ride. And he said, I will charge you 800 rupees for this ride. I said, you are a very good man. I will give you 1500 rupees. What will you do with that? He said, I will give him 500 rupees.
Because this is his ride. And I grabbed it, which I shouldn't have. When I heard that story, and when I know that I was coming to meet you, I had to tell him, that I am going to meet Sonu Sood. He said, the man is a real hero. The man is a real hero. So when we were looking for the guest for this show, Sonu Bhai, we could have gotten anyone. We could have gotten like Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan. We could have got all the Kans. But I wanted the real hero of Bollywood. Okay. Because the work you did during pandemic was groundbreaking and it was deeply human. So I am super excited to have you on the show. Super excited.

**Sonu Sood** (5:52)
Same here. And I also heard some great things about you. And I'm likewise, you know, and like you said, the way you started your day by giving back to someone, who's also giving back to someone. So I think that makes this world a better place to live in. So I think, yeah, it's going to be a very special day today for me also, and I'm really looking forward to this.