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. (...)"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.  

The myriad emotions that Bollywood  evokes and the chord it strikes across the border undeniably makes cinema the glue that binds people, transcending barriers of culture, geography, even a chequered past. 

Bollywood films have long had a place in the hearts of Indonesian audiences, but lately it’s said to have reached feverish proportions, popular not just in urban, but also rural areas. (...) As soft powers go, India’s is actually pretty impressive, covering a wide range of fields. As one writer put it, “from Buddha to Bollywood to BPOs”. 

India has long seemed unable or unwilling to become a major player on the world stage. But the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, is looking to change all that. In order to compensate for a small and weak foreign service, he is tapping into India’s considerable soft power: its emigrants, intellectuals, and yogis.

The initiative seeks to provide a deeper understanding of public diplomacy practices and trends in emerging markets of different political persuasions, against the backdrop of increasing multi-polarity and shifting world order. 

The treaty aims to usher in a new chapter of cultural diplomacy between the two countries. While the prospect of a Telugu film being co-produced through this treaty seems a distant possibility, mana filmmakers are waking up to the prospect of shooting films in China.