Bollywood festival brings exuberance of Indian cinema to Prague

The spectacular sights and sounds of Indian cinema came to the Czech Republic last night, as a week-long festival of Bollywood films opened in Prague. Over the next seven days, the audience will be treated to films spanning five decades of Indian cinema, covering everything from serious political comment to the traditional all-singing, all-dancing Bollywood extravaganza. The festival is supported by Prague's Indian Embassy. We asked Ambassador PS Raghavan what Bollywood meant to him:

Aim

"Bollywood means for me what I think it now means to most of the world. The Indian film industry I think is quite well known now and is the biggest in the world in terms of our viewership. Of course it's not the biggest in terms of revenue - Hollywood has that honour. But it has actually managed to reach various aspects of Indian culture to far flung corners of the world.

"The Indian diaspora has very enthusiastically embraced Bollywood and has ensured that it has had success in the countries of their domicile. And Bollywood in turn has captured the aspirations of the diaspora. You see much more these days - films, Bollywood films - which have been produced by the diaspora, for the diaspora, you know that kind of thing. So you know, Bollywood is acquiring a certain role, in spreading of Indian culture around the world. "

Heart Is Crazy

We're very, very far from India now, in the Czech Rep in the heart of Europe, what can a festival like this really do, to bring say the people of India and the Czech Rep closer together?

"You know, actually it reflects Bollywood's ability to expand its appeal to frontiers which go beyond Indian communities. It's not incidentally the first time this has happened, if you look into the 50s and 60s and 70s, 80s, in the last century, Bollywood was very popular in non-Hindi speaking areas of the world in what was then the Soviet Union, in much of what was Eastern Central Europe, ah, Southeast Asia, of course there the Indian population was also there, also the Middle East, you know as a vehicle to promote Indian culture, it is now entering areas out of the traditional Indian community areas.

Orphan

"And that is one reason why I welcome it very strongly. And you know I think it, it increases in the Czech Republic, and I hope in other countries around this here, if it can spread that, awareness of Indian culture, awareness of India, a broader awareness of India, which is very welcome. And I think, this is a very positive step in that direction."

Because Czech society is sometimes described as rather closed and rather xenophobic, do you think festivals like this can help to bridge that gap?

"Well you know I think the Czech Republic has had a long tradition of openness to other cultures, and you know, the film making tradition that the Czech Republic has had over many years... So at least in the field of culture I think they have always been very open, to new experiences and I think the very fact that you know we've got this kind of response to the Bollywood festival itself shows that there is an openness to influences and this is something I've seen, even in the short while I've been here."