New Delhi, December 17: US diplomats suggested stars of India’s hugely popular Hindi-language film industry could be sent to Afghanistan to help stabilise the troubled country, according to a leaked cable published on Friday.
The confidential US document from March 2007, released by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, said that high-profile Bollywood actors could play a key role in India’s “soft power” assistance in Afghanistan.
“We understand Bollywood movies are wildly popular in Afghanistan, so willing Indian celebrities could be asked to travel to Afghanistan to help bring attention to social issues there,” it said.
Bollywood, based in the western city of Mumbai, is a two-billion-dollar industry which has become increasingly popular abroad, not just among the Indian diaspora but in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan.
US diplomats in New Delhi described India as Afghanistan’s “natural ally” and advocated using its vast wealth of well-trained — and cheaper — expertise to build capacity in areas including the civil service and electoral bodies.
But it warned that a key obstacle to increasing Indian influence would be Pakistan, which fears being encircled by its larger, powerful neighbour and traditional rival.
–Agencies