Aamir's new year gift to Afghans



ABUL: Cinestar Aamir Khan has given a new year's gift to the battle-weary people of Afghanistan with a print of his latest Bollywood blockbuster 'Lagaan' being presented to interim president Hamid Karzai here.

The print of the movie, which has created waves all over India and is the country's official entry for the Oscars, was handed over by India's special envoy S.K. Lambah when he called on the Afghan president here on Sunday.

Lambah said that Aamir Khan at the request of the government had specially flown here from Mumbai to hand over the print to him as a new year's gift to Afghanistan.

Karzai, appreciating the print, told the Indian envoy that in the prevailing atmosphere of yearning for peace in his country, there could not be a better new year's gift to the Afghans than the film of the movie star who had a tremendous fan following in Afghanistan.

Lambah said that even the Afghan president seemed to be updated on the Bollywood scene when he remarked that imprint of Bollywood had survived the "Taliban onslaught".

Karzai said that the film would be premiered on the Afghan television, which was recently restarted, for nationwide viewing. It will be also released in the theatres here.

The screening of the film 'Lagaan' would be followed by holding of an Indian film festival in Afghanistan after January 26, in which some of the old classics and new films would be screened in Kabul and some other cities.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj might visit Afghanistan during the festival.

The film department and Afghan television recently requested India to dispatch of some Bollywood films saying that the archives of Indian movies had completely been destroyed by the Taliban regime, who had banned transmission of radio and television programmes.

The revived Afghan television, which is now spreading its reach from the suburbs of Kabul to cover the whole country, is receiving tremendous response. A brief announcement tells the story of the impact of radio and TV.

On Sunday night, through radio and television, Afghans received the news of another precious gift from India - 1,000 pairs of artificial limbs 'Jaipur foot' for people maimed during the Taliban regime.

The response to the announcement was overwhelming as almost 10,000 people applied, out of which the lucky 1,000 would now be implanted with artificial legs at the military hospital here begining from Tuesday.

The 'Jaipur foot' were flown in here by a special Indian Air Force aircraft, which also brought in a 20 member team of the Jaipur-based Mahaveer Viklang Sahitya Samiti.

In view of the response and need of artificial limbs, Lambah said that New Delhi was making efforts to dispatch 1,000 'Jaipur foot' every month.
( PTI )

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