"cinemaSCOpe" – India’s diplomatic outreach to SCO countries assumes great significance as India set to assume SCO Presidency

India is all set to assume the rotating presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) – for the first time - from Uzbekistan who is hosting 22nd SCO Summit this year in the historic Uzbek city of Samarkand from Thursday till Friday.

The two-day summit will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping among other leaders.

After becoming a SCO member in 2017, India successfully hosted the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting on 30 November 2020 which is the second most important gathering of the group after the Council of Heads of state meeting also known as SCO Summit. This resulted in important outcomes including first-ever initiatives like SCO Startup Forum, Young Scientists Conclave, Consortium of Economic Think-tanks, Traditional Medicine, Buddhist Heritage Exhibition and translation of Indian literature into Russian and Chinese. Among other initiatives, India’s diplomatic outreach to the SCO countries also leveraged the soft power of Indian cinema in the region which has turned out to be a great success. A proposal from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a 'SCO Film Festival' is also under consideration by the member States.

To celebrate India’s successful conduct of the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in November 2020, Indian Embassy in Beijing launched a unique initiative – a movie series called "cinemaSCOpe" in December 2020 exclusively for the SCO countries in which Indian films dubbed in Russian along with English subtitle are screened every month. 

The initiative was hailed as a new beginning to bring the SCO Family together through a 'cultural connect' and enjoys huge popularity among the SCO diplomatic fraternity in these two years.

Dmitrii Lukiantsev, a senior Russian diplomat and Russia’s Permanent Representative to SCO in Beijing remembered the old soviet days when Indian movies were hugely popular adding that the popularity of Indian movies stays. He said that lot of people from SCO region come to the Indian embassy to enjoy the movies dubbed in Russian tells how much we like this cultural initiative by the Indian embassy.

 

The "cinemaSCOpe" event in 2020 was jointly inaugurated by the then Indian Ambassador to China Vikram Misri and the then SCO Secretary General Vladimir Norov. Mr. Norov who is now the foreign minister of Uzbekistan and is hosting this year’s Samarkand SCO summit, congratulated the Indian Embassy after its inauguration in 2020 for taking the unique initiative and expressed happiness that "cinemaSCOpe" event coincided with the 20th anniversary of SCO’s formation in 2021.

The first movie to be screened was popular Amir Khan hit 'Three Idiots' and since then many popular Bollywood hits have been screened at the cultural center auditorium of the Indian Embassy. This will continue till India's chairmanship of the SCO 'Council of Heads of State' meeting in 2023. Families from SCO countries enjoy quality time with an Indian movie along with tasty Indian snacks and praised this as a great



occasion to meet people from other SCO countries in a cheerful atmosphere.

Natalia Dima, Diplomat from Moldova and Nadya Fomina from Russia said ‘cinemaSCOpe’ is a rare opportunity to watch different genre of Indian films. Ajay Devgan and Tabu starrer ‘Drishyam’ was the latest in the series which was widely appreciated for its acting, plot and story line. Pavel Dolgov, an expert at the SCO in Beijing appreciated the deep sense and engagement capability of the movie.

The launching event was both a way to celebrate the successful conduct of the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting on 30 November and start a new track of bringing the SCO Family together through a 'cultural connect'.

Anna Zobnina, a Russian teaching at Renmin University of China thanked the Indian Embassy for making available in Beijing movies dubbed in russian. That’s very pleasant, she said. Ruslana Shamanska, a Ukrainian teaching English at Beijing Foreign languages school said that it will inspire many to pay a visit to India as the Indian movies beautifully depict the culture of the country.

Indian Cinema is the largest cinema industry in the world in terms of movie production. The industry produces about 2000 movies every year in over 20 languages, which is more than double the number of movies made in the United States. 

Indian Cinema industry is also one of the largest in the world in terms of revenue with about US$ 3 billion, providing direct and indirect employment to thousands of people. Global influence of Indian Cinema, especially Bollywood is unparalleled and it has helped propagate the Indian culture and civilizational message to far off places, he noted.

India has always maintained deep cultural ties and people to people exchanges with the countries in the region as SCO region has historically been an extended neighborhood to India. The SCO region is a confluence of diverse civilizations and a cradle of rich traditions of art and culture which is also reflected in the cinemas made in SCO countries that are globally appreciated. Global influence of Indian Cinema, especially Bollywood is unparalleled, and it has helped propagate the Indian culture and civilizational message to far off places.

Indian movies are quite popular in China and other SCO countries and have played a great role in people-to-people connections. Glorious past of India cinema and its remarkable journey in the past more than 100 years has definitely helped in it. In the last 100 years, Indian cinema has transcended boundaries and is not only seen as an art but a powerful medium to connect people. 

Indian movies, with Russian dubbing, have left a huge positive impression among the soviet movie fandom. Showman Raj Kapoor's ‘Awaara’, was one of the first bollywood movies to be screened in the Soviet Union. From Raj Kapoor to Mithun Chakraborty to Amitabh Bachchan, many Indian actors and actresses are considered as symbols of optimism in the households of Russia and Central Asia.