http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/12/content_8354544.htm
(((For the Indian prime minister to promote Bollywood as a soft-power tool seems no big deal, but this is the Chinese press noticing that he did that.)))
Link: Bollywood to be important tool of India's diplomacy_English_Xinhua.
Bollywood to be important tool of India's diplomacy www.chinaview.cn 2008-06-12 14:58:31
NEW DELHI, June 12 (Xinhua) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh envisioned a new role for Bollywood, an important instrument of foreign policy, according the Press Trust of India Thursday.
Noting India's "soft power," Singh said Bollywood can be put to use as an important instrument of foreign policy when he talked to the fresh recruits of the Indian Foreign Service.
"Cultural relations, India's film industry, Bollywood...I find wherever I go in the Middle East, in Africa, people talk about Indian films," he said.
He said soft power is equally important in the new world of diplomacy, Singh said, adding "so that is a new way of influencing the world about the growing importance of India."
Bollywood is the center of the Indian film industry and one of the largest film producers in the world with an annual output of over 1,000 films a year.
