On the invitation of the Russia consulate general, producer, director Yash Chopra was honored to receive the president , on behalf of the Film and TV Producers Guild of India.
The reception was hosted to further strengthen the ties of the two countries with special emphasis on promoting cultural exchanges between Russia and India and for the president to get an opportunity to directly meet with the members of our film industry.
Chopra said, “We are honored to have the president of Russia, H.E. Medvedev, who took time off during his very short visit to India, to come visit us. Speaking on behalf of all of us present here and particularly the film fraternity, I am confident that this visit will most certainly help us to build on our already strong cultural and emotional relationship that has existed over many years. With this as our heritage, we should be looking at doing things collectively going forward.”
President Dmitry Medvedev said that his association and love for Indian films started way back in 1970 with Raj Kapoor’s Shree 420, a popular and iconic film in Russia. He also said that cinemas are a common language and that he looked forward to receiving good proposals from the Indian Film Industry.
Film & TV Producers Guild of India president Ramesh Sippy expressed a desire to take this relationship forward while still retaining our cultures. He also hoped for a better understanding while entering into co- productions.
Film & TV Producers Guild of India vice president Mukesh Bhatt requested the Russian president to help create a single window platform to facilitate cooperation between the two countries to benefit both in production and distribution of films.
Amit Khanna also requested that procedures for doing business with Russia be streamlined and simplified.
Randhir Kapoor, who spoke about the popularity of his father’s films in Russia, mentioned that we too should look at showcasing Russian films here which would help the love
During his visit to the YRF Studio, Chopra also invited the president to visit the sets where he met Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor . Khan said that there is a great diversity of Russian and Indian culture which can be mutually drawn upon. He suggested that we should go there to learn the ballet and Russia should come here to learn the bhangra!
Also present at the function were the Russian Federation to India ambassador Alexander m> Kadakin and luminaries from the film industry including, Rakesh Roshan, Manmohan Shetty, Puneet Goenka, Anil Arjun and Nitin Desai amongst others.
