Medvedev Rekindles Russia’s Cold War Bollywood Affair

Medvedev Rekindles Russia’s Cold War Bollywood Affair - India Real Time - WSJ: "It was the height of the Cold War and Hollywood films were still off limits in Russia. Stalin had just passed away and the newly-appointed Nikita Khruschev was looking for ways to allow Russians more than Communist propaganda.
The answer, part of a cultural period known as “Khruschev’s Thaw” — which began following Stalin’s death in 1953 — was to let in Bollywood films. Then-Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was tilting to Moscow and, although India was still officially non-aligned, films from Mumbai were preferable for Soviet authorities to cultural imports from the U.S.
In homage to this unexpected cultural exchange, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will today visit Yash Raj Studios in Mumbai, a major Bollywood film enterprise set up in 2007 by impresario Yash Chopra.

Word is that he’ll meet a bevy of Bollywood stars there, including Priyanka Chopra, not a usual stop for a visiting head of state to India but one that speaks to a romantic vision of Bollywood that many older Russians remember with fondness.
“Our country is one of the places where Indian culture is most admired,” Mr. Medvedev said yesterday at a joint news conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “Russia and India are the only countries where satellite channels broadcast Indian movies 24/7.”



Radj Kapoor in Moscow, 1967

Indians who traveled to Moscow, East Berlin or other parts of the Communist Block in the late 1950s and 1960s remember ushanka-wearing Soviet soldiers, who spoke no Hindi and had likely never been to India, being able to sing famous songs from Raj Kapoor films like “Shree 420” and “Awara.”"