Russian President Vladimir Putin praised ‘Bollywood’ at a media briefing ahead of the BRICS summit on Friday and said Indian films are the most popular in the country.
Asked whether Russia would encourage BRICS member countries to shoot films in the country, Russian President Putin said, “If we look at BRICS member countries, I think Indian films are the most popular in this country. We have a special TV channel.” Indian movies are shown on it 24 hours a day. We are very interested in Indian films. We will present films from BRICS countries at the Moscow International Film Festival this year. We will find some common ground and promote them in Russia. Pharmaceuticals would also be a good venture. I am ready to talk to the Prime Minister of India and we will agree and there will be no difficulties…”
Putin said he would talk to his ‘friend’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the proposal and was confident that both would agree.
“I am ready to talk to my friend, the Prime Minister of India, when he arrives in Kazan. I am sure that we will agree 100 percent. There are no difficulties, I see there… It will be interesting to see not only the Indian The films rather have actors from the BRICS countries representing their cultures, an Indian actor, a Chinese and an Ethiopian actor, well, you know, we discussed this with colleagues from the BRICS countries that we should organize a festival of theatrical arts. “A cinema academy should be established,” he said.
In particular, Bollywood films are very popular in Russia, as the two societies are arguably similar, and their tastes also appear to match – they liked poor-to-rich stories and clear divisions between good and bad. The highest-grossing Indian film in the then Soviet Union was Disco Dancer (1982), written by Rahi Masoom Raza and starring actor Mithun Chakraborty. In terms of viewership, the only Indian films to sell 100 million tickets overseas were Awara and Disco Dancer.
Raj Kapoor was already a well-known cultural figure in Russia. When his film Awara was released in 1951, it immediately started being discussed in Russia. In addition, images of distant fabulous India inspired Russian thinkers, poets, musicians and artists. The influence of the cultures was mutual – the tremendous spiritual influence of Leo Tolstoy on the formation of Mahatma Gandhi’s thought is well known.
Putin also said that he would organize music festivals in the future in collaboration with other BRICS countries.
He said, “Jointly, we will pursue this track in the future and also need to create popular music festivals, so there is an open field for work and we will take interest and media outlets will definitely cover it happily and Will participate.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia from October 22-23 to attend the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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