MUMBAI: Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who arrived in Mumbai today will meet top Bollywood filmmakers and actors in Mumbai on Thursday. He is likely to discuss project opportunities in Israel.
The event, named Shalom Bollywood, would be attended by several top actors, directors, producers including superstar Amitabh Bachchan, said a senior official. However, names of other dignitaries from Bollywood have not yet been disclosed.
A delegation of Israeli consulate in Mumbai had called on Bachchan last week.
“Thank you, @SrBachchan for opening your house & your heart for the staff of the Consulate of @israelinMumbai. We are humbled by the honour and the kind words you bestowed on #Israel. Appreciate your active role in the cooperation between #Bollywood & Israel,” came the tweet from Israel’s Consul General in Mumbai, Yaakov Finkelstein, after the meeting.
The invite extended by Israeli Ambassador to India, Daniel Carmon, on the visit of Netanyahu and his wife Sara, states: “The State of Israel honours Bollywood’s starring role in contemporary Indian culture and embraces the opportunities offered by Bollywood to Israel, the Holy Land, with its rich history, culture, diversity, and breathtaking landscapes.”
Just last month an 80-member crew comprising of Bollywood actors Jacqueline Fernandez and Sushant Singh Rajput shot scenes for “Drive,” the first Hindi film to be set in Israel. Hindi films also fetch good response in Israel.
The Hindi film industry or the Bollywood too has seen several artists from the Indian Jewish community. Sulochana (aka Ruby Myers), Pramila (aka Esther Abrahams) and Nadira (Florence Ezekiel) from the yesteryear films, Scriptwriter David Joseph Penkar, who wrote the first talkie in India cinema Alam Ara in 1931 and the famous character artist David Cheulkar also simply known as David all are from the Jewish Bene Israel community in Mumbai’s neighboring Raigad district.
Danny Ben-Moshe, a documentary filmmaker and an Associate Professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, had brought out the contribution of Indian Jewish community to the Bollywood in his documentary – “Shalom Bollywood: The Untold Story of Indian Cinema”.
The bond is likely to be strengthened at the dinner meeting with Netanyahu.
Nariman House to have a 26/11 memorial
Meanwhile, the Nariman House - one of the places that were attacked during the 26/11 fidayeen strikes - would now have a state-of-the-art Living Memorial. The plans of the Living Memorial too would be unveiled Netanyahu - in presence of Moshe Holtzberg, the 11-year-old boy, who lost his parents at the Chabad House, on Thursday. The Living Memorial would include the rooms of the fifth floor where the Holtzbergs lived and the terrace garden. The fourth floor would have a small museum. Moshe has been living in Israel with his maternal grandparents since the tragedy and is a yeshivah student.