Bollywood films are becoming popular in Egypt and steps are being taken to bring Indian movies, including classics like "Sangam", "Mother India" and others, onto the big screen, the Indian envoy has said here.
India's Ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya and popular Egyptian star Rania Farid Shawky were speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the Indian Film Festival at Al- Hanager cinema, which also saw participation from many Bollywood fans.
The festival, which is organised by the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC) of the Embassy of India in Cairo, in collaboration with the Culture Development Fund of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, runs until November 2, presenting a variety of Indian films.
The Film Festival features an eclectic mix of contemporary and evergreen Hindi films featuring leading stars Shahrukh Khan to Amitabh Bachchan and others. The films include "Devdas", "Mera Naam Joker", "Drishyam", "Mother India", "Black", "Swades" and "Sangam".
The Indian Embassy had organised other festivals like the Tagore festival (last May), which had shown five films of Tagore, but this is the first time this year to hold an Indian film festival showing different films.
"We wanted to bring Indian movies onto the big screen because in Egypt you see them only on the television so that is why we wanted to bring some old Classic films like Sangam, Mother India and others which are very well known and some contemporary films," Bhattacharyya told PTI.