Bollywood bonanza kicks off in Moscow with Aishwarya-starrer 08th Sept 2005
14.45 IST
By Agencies
Russians will have an opportunity to rekindle their romance with Indian cinema during a weeklong festival of latest Bollywood films which began here with the screening of Aishwarya Rai - starrer Chokher Bali .
The new generation of Russian Bollywood fans would also be able to enjoy Pradip Sarkar's Parineeta , Shriram Raghvan's Ek Haseena Thi , Mahesh Manjrekar's Rakht and Anurag Basu's Murder in the 'Indian Evenings' film festival which started at the prestigious Hall of the House of Entrepreneurs Tuesday evening.
The festival has been organised by the Indian embassy in collaboration with local sponsors amidst a growing interest among young Russians about Bollywood.
Indian movies had been very popular in the erstwhile Soviet Union and every generation in the bygone days had its idols beginning from Raj Kapoor , Amitabh Bachchan to Mithun Chakraborty .
After over a decade long lull the Russian TV channels, including the main government network 'Rossia' have started weekly telecast of the golden collection of old Bollywood movies dubbed in Russian during the Soviet times.
After the collapse of Soviet films distribution system and eventually its takeover by Hollywood, it became extremely difficult for Bollywood movies to enter into the Russian market.