Bollywood played the role of a bridge in the friendship between India and Egypt, the President there was also convinced of Hindi films
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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will reach New Delhi from today on a three-day visit to India. He will be the chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations on 26 January of India. Diplomatic friendship can also be reflected in his presence. Over the decades many Egyptians have formed a personal bond with Hindi films. From Dilip Kumar’s Aan to Amitabh Bachchan’s Mard and Shah Rukh Khan’s My Name is Khan in Cairo, hundreds of Bollywood movies have been shot there and the people there have showered a lot of love.
President was also crazy about Hindi films
Not only the people there, but also the President has given a lot of love to Hindi cinema. Not many people know that the (then) President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser attended the 7th Filmfare Awards in Bombay in 1960. The attraction is mutual. Bollywood has also been fascinated by the panorama and monuments of Egypt, especially the pyramids. From Bachchan in The Nice Gambler (1976) to Akshay Kumar in Singh Is Kinng (2008) – Hindi cinema’s biggest actors beat up and romanced villains here.
started in the thirties
According to a Times of India report, people-to-people contact through the world of moving pictures in dark theaters beyond the world of politics and diplomacy began in the thirties. In an insightful paper titled The Ubiquitous Nonpresence of India by Oxford Professor Walter Armbrust, the fan magazine Al Kawaqib (The Star) mentioned how Hindi cinema was mentioned in Egypt.
The key to the success of Indian films in Egypt
As a 1957 article in the same magazine pointed out, “The key to the success of Indian films in Egypt is that they depict ordinary life, both Indian and Egyptian. The music in these movies impresses us. Egypt boasts a film industry of its own and the period from the 1940s to the 1960s is considered the “Golden Age of Egyptian Cinema”.
Amitabh Bachchan becomes megastar in Egypt
The 1980s saw the advent of the videocassette, which turned cinema watching into home entertainment for the first time. Pirated VHS tapes further increased the global reach of Bollywood movies and stars. Amitabh Bachchan became a megastar in Egypt since the 1980s. In the film journal Leap Cut, Texas academic Claire Cooley wrote, “Bachchan skyrocketed into the Egyptian cinema star constellation with films such as Arrested and Mard (1985), which audiences saw in theaters or on videocassettes … “
Fans eager to get a glimpse of him
Armbrust recalled two fascinating anecdotes that fueled Big B’s popularity in Egypt. He wrote, “In the early nineties an urban legend was circulating that a plane carrying Amitabh Bachchan made a brief landing at Cairo airport to refuel. Thousands of people flocked to the airport hoping to catch a glimpse of him. I saw an example of Bachchan’s presence at a distributor’s show in a popular market near downtown. Some of these distributors offered T-shirts with Bachchan’s face on them.
love for shahrukh khan
Egypt’s love affair with Hindi cinema has continued in recent times as well. Shah Rukh Khan is a fashion label in Egypt. The example of King Khan’s immense attraction comes from an incident in 2021, which was revealed on social media by Ashwani Deshpande, who teaches at Ashoka College. She shared a tweet of her conversation with an Egyptian travel agent, in which she wrote, “Wanted to transfer money to a travel agent in Egypt. There is a problem switching. The agent replied, “You are from Shahrukh Khan’s country. I trust you. I’ll make the booking, you pay me later. For anywhere else, I would not do this. But anything for Shah Rukh.…” Later Shah Rukh had sent his autographed pictures and a handwritten note to the travel agent.
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