Several villages in drought-prone districts like Aurangabad, Sangli, Satara, Dhule, and Jalna have been facing a severe shortage of drinking water since years. The situation was grim in 2016. As many as 1,606 tankers had been pressed into service to 1,755 villages across the state of Maharashtra.

This is why the beloved Aamir Khan had set up the Paani Foundation, a not-for-profit company set up in 2016 by the team of the TV series Satyamev Jayate (lead by Aamir) to fight drought in rural Maharashtra. Their mission goes like: "Water scarcity is largely a man-made condition, and we believe that only people’s efforts can solve the crisis. Paani Foundation aims to harness the power of communication to mobilize, motivate and train people in this mission to eradicate drought. Offering training in scientific watershed management, leadership, and community-building, Paani Foundation is now working in roughly 90% of drought-hit Maharashtra."

Aamir, who has been shooting for his upcoming film Thugs of Hindustan will take a break of 2 months and work for the Paani Foundation along with wife Kiran Rao. His initiative of Paani foundation's Satyameva Jayate Water Cup (a competition in which villages compete to win prizes for the best watershed management work) has grown to achieve what they were set out to in the last three years. This proves that his touch is not limited to his films but it also positively impacts his social initiatives.

During the actor's recent Facebook Live, Aamir shared, "I have been traveling to different villages all day and I have been speaking to people from different villages about the Satyamev Jayate Water Cup and encouraging them. Some of them have already completed their training so Kiran (Rao) and I, in the months of April and May travel around Maharashtra and go to different villages where work is happening and we work with the villagers and discover such wonderful stories which are very inspiring."

Aamir further adds, "You must know that all the success that you see in these villages is all their own efforts. We have not given them any monetary help. We have only given them knowledge and encouraged them."

Water Cup that started with 3 Talukas in 2016 has almost 1/4th of Maharashtra participating this year. In 2018, over 9000 villages from 75 talukas will be competing for the Water Cup.

Because of his phenomenal work in Maharashtra, the smallest of places not only know about Aamir Khan but also take him to be a huge inspiration.

The Maharashtra government earlier decided that it would not provide financial aid to the NGO. But recent news confirms that it would provide a financial assistance of around Rs 88 crore to actor Aamir Khan's Paani Foundation for its project. The government has issued a circular stating that the assistance would be given to fuel expenditure.

"The state will provide funds up to Rs 1.50 lakh per village to be spent on fuel. There are 5,900 villages across the state that have participated in the Water Cup competition for the current fiscal," as per the GR (Government Resolution) issued recently.