Jacqueline Fernandez and Riteish Deshmukh Are PETA India’s ‘Most Beautiful Vegetarian Celebrities’ of 2024

This news release is also available in Hindi and Marathi.

Mumbai – In recognition of their actions for animals, actors Riteish Deshmukh, who is vegan, and Jacqueline Fernandez are the latest stars to win the title of Most Beautiful Vegetarian Celebrity from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India.

Using her massive star power to advocate for the protection of all animals, Fernandez has rallied her fans to support PETA India’s work in numerous way, including the #FreeGajraj campaign following which an elephant who was kept in chains for more than 50 years was rescued. Fernandez has also encouraged people to adopt dogs in need from shelters, eat vegan foods, starred in an ad campaign against the use of angora wool and asked people to avoid horse-drawn carriages. Deshmukh promotes vegan eating and even co-founded a vegan meat company with his wife Genelia. The company, Imagine Meats, has previously won PETA India’s Best Vegan Meat award for its tasty “chicken” nuggets.

“From acting to animal rights activism, Jacqueline Fernandez and Riteish Deshmukh have proven to be real superstars,” says PETA India Vice President of Celebrity and Public Relations Sachin Bangera. “PETA India is delighted to honour them for showing the world that kindness to animals is the most beautiful quality of all.”

For meat, eggs, and dairy, animals are raised in vast warehouses in severe confinement. As PETA India reveals in the video exposé “Glass Walls”, chickens killed for food are often shackled upside down before their throats are slit. Cows and buffaloes are crammed into vehicles in such large numbers that their bones often break before they’re dragged off to the slaughterhouse, and pigs are stabbed in the heart as they scream. On the decks of fishing boats, fish suffocate or are cut open while they’re still alive.

As well as being the compassionate choice, eating more plants slashes the risk of suffering from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity; helps fight the climate catastrophe by reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and can even prevent future pandemics. SARS, swine flu, bird flu, and likely COVID-19 are all linked to confining and killing animals for food.

Past winners of the title (known as the Hottest Vegetarian Celebrity Award until 2020) include Zeenat Aman, Jackie Shroff, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Rajkummar Rao, Alia Bhatt, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Akshay Kumar, Bhumi Pednekar, Shraddha Kapoor, Sonu Sood, Manushi Chhillar, Sunil Chhetri, Anushka Sharma, Kartik Aaryan, Vidyut Jammwal, Shahid Kapoor, Rekha, and Amitabh Bachchan.

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.