Though Shah Rukh has borne the installation cost, the maintenance cost is taken care of by the villagers themselves.

'We have a corpus to meet the running expenses of these lanterns. We raise the corpus by charging just Rs.2.50 from every villager. We charge extra if one takes the lanterns for use during festivals and special occasions. And if a person from a neighbouring village takes it then he is charged Rs.10 per night,' said Biraja Prasad Pati, of Nature Club, a local NGO which implemented the project.

These villages are primarily small clusters of Bengali-speaking people. The villagers use these lanterns not only to light their homes but also for other purposes.

'We use these lanterns for different purposes. Our men take these lanterns to scare away wild boars during night as they often destroy our standing paddy. The fishermen take these lanterns for fishing during night and our children study with these lanterns,' said Urmila Modal, from Okilapala village, adding that they often give these lanterns free of cost to meritorious students of the village.

Apart from these seven villages, Shah Rukh's generosity has helped in bringing light to two other villages - Jadapala and Tarajodi in Mayurbhanj district of the state.

(Byomakesh Biswal can be contacted at byomakesh.b@ians.in)