Very robust people-to-people tie with India: US

Washington: The United States has a very robust people-to-people tie with India and wants it to grow and solidify in the future, State Department has said. “We obviously have a very robust people-to-people or cultural relationship with India. We certainly want to see that grow and solidify in the future,” US State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters at his daily news conference. [caption id=“attachment_329686” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Courtesy: IBN LIVE”]  [/caption] “Obviously, Indian culture is very popular among Americans and vice versa, I would wager. In any way we can facilitate that exchange, we certainly would support that,” Toner said, responding to a question on the first South Asia Film Festival being organised in the Greater Washington Area. The three day film festival kicked off yesterday evening with a red carpet welcome of eminent stars from the Bollywood and screening of Shyam Benegal’s classic film Mammo. The centerpiece film of this festival will be Deepti Naval’s directorial debut “Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane ki Baarish”, which will be screened today. The festival will close with Dev Anand’s “Hum Dono”, fully restored in color. His son Suneil Anand will be present on the occasion. Other highlights of the three day film festival include a Shyam Bengal retrospective, acting and filmmaking workshops, short films directed by local artists and a number of exciting new films. The Festival brings together a wide variety of films from across South Asia and includes films in Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali and Telgu. New York and Los Angeles regularly hosts India film festival, but this is for the first time being held in the US Capital. PTI