Dmitry Medvedev to visit 'Bollywood' during India tour

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who begins his two-day India tour tomorrow, will also visit the dream city of Mumbai to see the wonder called Bollywood.Medvedev, who arrives in New Delhi tomorrow night, will visit Mumbai on Wednesday, sources said.Medvedev's scheduled visit to the Film City would be a tribute to Bollywood, which continues to inspire and entertain his countrymen.Although the silver screens in Russia have been captured by Hollywood-controlled film distributors, who give limited access even to domestically produced movies, Bollywood is still alive and kicking in millions of homes across the vast Eurasian giant due to round-the-clock Russian language paid channel 'India TV'.Many private TV channels like Domashny TV (Home TV), STS and others regularly show Bollywood movies, which are very popular among the young and old alike, especially in the Russian regions."Because the 'good' always wins over the 'evil', a dream which every Russian cherishes," Russian Deputy Culture Minister Andrei Busygyn said, explaining the popularity of Indian movies in his country.Surprisingly, the younger generation of Russia knows about the modern constellation of Bollywood stars, better than many Indians of the older-generation living in this country.If the older generation of Russia cherishes the images of Raj Kapoor and Nargis in the fond memories of their youth, Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini are the idols of the middle aged Russians, while the younger generation adores Aishwarya Rai, Hritik Roshan, Priety Zinta and others, in whom they see the image of a 'Global Indian'."Do you know the secret of Bollywood movies popularity in our country? The Indian movies 'Awara' and 'Shri 420' came to Russia in early fifties after the devastating war, when we were enduring hardships."There we saw that life in India was even more miserable, but they had smiles on their faces."It was a great inspiration for us," said Ludmila Sekacheva, the head of "Parade of Indian and Russian Heritage'- an NGO involved in promoting Indian culture in Russia.