Salman Khurshid debuts in music video

NEW DELHI: Former foreign minister of India Salman Khurshid teamed up with German ambassador to India Michael Steiner for a Bollywood-style music video inspired by 2003 romantic drama 'Kal Ho Naa Ho', starring Shah Rukh Khan.

In the three-and-a-half-minute tribute video, Khurshid has taken on the role of Saif Ali Khan from the Karan Johar-directed film and is seen with the ambassador's wife Eliese, who plays Preity Zinta's character.

"People think that diplomacy is only about exchanging notes and having coffee at United Nations lounge. No, diplomacy is not only about government, it is about people to people bond and contacts between civilizations," Khurshid said.

"People like diplomats, foreign ministers do their job but the real diplomats are hidden among cultural people. Someone like Saif, who I tried very ineffectively to play in this video," he added.

Steiner said he loved the title song of the film, which has been penned by Javed Akhtar and sung by Sonu Nigam. But lip-syncing was a challenge for him.

"It was a challenge. These actors are masters and I had to imitate them. I realized that you cannot imitate Shah Rukh Khan. He is such a perfect actor. We wanted to show our respect to Bollywood and these fantastic actors. They are very popular in Germany.

"Bollywood is a cultural institution. This is the one instrument to connect to the world and it is a very good instrument. Me and my wife are Bollywood addicts. She has seen more than 150 Bollywood films... we have seen them together," the ambassador said.

The premiere of the music - "Lebe Zetzt-Kal Ho Naa Ho" was attended by actress Sharmila Tagore, Saif, Akhtar, Madhu Kishwar and director Sumit Osmand Shaw last night.

The video, which is available on Youtube, has already received 39,962 views so far.