TEHRAN -- The first Indian cultural festival was opened during a ceremony at the Niavaran Cultural Artistic Complex on Tuesday.

Indian films and Indian music are being performed during the event and participants will offer Indian food and Indian handicrafts to visitors during the festival that will run until May 15.
The deputy director of the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) in tourism affair Shahbaz Yazdani, the head of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Syed Shahid Mehdi and several other Iranian and Indian officials attended the event.
India is known as the cradle of culture and civilization and a symbol of peaceful coexistence of different religions and tribes in the world, Yazdani mentioned at the ceremony.
He called Iran and India as one of “elite nations” whose achievements are not confined within their borders but affect the entire world.
“There is much commonality between these two nations and each generation tries to boost these ties that are based on cultural and civilizational resemblance between these two countries,” he added.
He called holding cultural festivals a way to extend ties and expressed his hope for holding Iranian cultural festivals in that country.
At the ceremony, the head of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Syed Shahid Mehdi also made a short speech.
“Unfortunately, the Persian language is not taught in Indian schools anymore, however the universities that have a Persian department still teach it,” he said.
In an interview with the Persian service of IRNA, Syed Shahid Mehdi praised Iranian movies which in his view lead to a “humanistic cinema”.
He said that directors like Majid Majidi and Abbas Kiarostami have propounded Iranian cinema on a global level and in a professional way.
He went on to say that he bought DVDs and VCDs of Iranian movies since the Iranian films are not screened in Indian movie theaters.