Israelis sing a Bollywood tune: PM Modi gives warm welcome to Netanyahu

Many were intrigued that among the nine agreements India and Israel signed on Monday, during the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured), there was one on co-production of films. During their joint media interaction, Netanyahu said his wife and he were excited about visiting “Bollywood” while in India.

Ministry of External Affairs officials said the agreement was “exploratory” in nature to look at the joint production of films. Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale added, during the banquet that PM Narendra Modi hosted for the visiting Israeli delegation in the afternoon, one of the songs the live band played was “Ichak dana bichak dana”. He said the number of Israelis who knew that song was “amazing”, and that they said it was quite popular in Israel. The song is from the Raj Kapoor directed and produced the film “Shree 420”, which was released in 1955.