Over the past few years, India has got tremendous international media attention. And for amazing reasons. International artists and celebrities have chosen India for performances, recreation and even for holy matrimony. India is increasingly becoming popular with artists, and we aren’t even complaining as long as we get to experience the sparkle of international presence on our land or our reminiscences in their hearts.
And how many of us didn’t feel ecstatic after we realised Major Lazer’s Lean On was shot in India?!
Ed Sheeran, Afrojack, Tiesto, David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Skrillex, Mark Ronson, The Chainsmokers, James Bay etc. are some of the fat-cats of the international music industry who performed in India. Collaborations have also become the next big thing, artists even use styles from Indian music to accentuate their musical pieces such as Selena Gomez’s Come And Get It.
And do we even need to point out Akon and those cameos that Akshay Kumar managed to engage in Blue and Kambakht Ishq. Actually, let’s not go down that road!
Outsourced, an NBC comedy series which in its one year run gathered both controversy and love from viewers, was based on India (and its stereotypes!).
Other famous personalities who checked off India from their travelling lists are Julia Roberts and Demi Moore whose spiritual quests ended here. Gerard Butler and Robert De Niro have also visited India.
Adam Levine, yes, we know estrogen levels are soaring after reading that! The Maroon 5 lead singer’s Sanskrit tattoo ‘Tapas’ became another reason for his Indian fans to love him. Many international celebrities sport tattoos that have Sanskrit/Hindi origins. David Beckham, Angelina Jolie, Tommy Lee have got India and its beauty inked on their bodies in various ways. Movies such as Million Dollar Arm, Eat Pray Love and Zero Dark Thirty among many others were also shot in the country.
Tattoos, Meditation, Concerts, and Movie Shoots, it would be unfair if no one decided to get married in the land of Atoot Bandhans, and so Katy Perry and Russell Brand got married in 2012 in India, however, their marriage didn’t last long.
Murad Osman, an Instagram celebrity and photographer who got massive attention after his #followmeto trended on the web, chose to capture India in his own unique way. The pictures that he captured aren’t only beautiful but they will also make you fall in love with the country. Brandon Stanton, a photojournalis and the creator of Humans Of New York visited India as a part of his world tour. His appearance created a chaos in the capital, but Stanton, who loved the madness, seemed to enjoy it.
Some celebrity visits upset us as well. No, not because we are intolerant (chuckles). But Because we didn’t see enough of these artists. You guessed it right! We are talking about Coldplay. The band decided to have a surprise performance in the capital, which left all the fans dejected. What a shame! We hope and pray with all our hearts that Coldplay decides to perform in the country really soon, and that this time, they give a prior notice.
However, on a serious note- we had a secondary motive of looking into the growing fascination of artists. The motive of looking into our own fascination. Our fixation of going abroad is taking over. And our fixation on scraping through the imperfections of our country seems to outweigh our fascinations.
Shouldn’t we be proud of the attention and recognition that our country receives from icons of pop culture? Should we question people who question their Indian origin and identity? Shouldn’t we be the first ones to understand the marvel that our country is?
Nevertheless, we absolutely love the mingling of geographical and ideological boundaries. It’s needless to say that watching international public figures embrace our soil is sheer fun, there’s also so much to be proud of. Here, we feel the need to mention Priyanka Chopra’s Quantico! Aren’t we all proud that this girl has her own show on an international channel?!
We’d like to believe that the West is warming up to us as well with Amitabh Bachchan appearing in The Great Gatsby and Nargis Fakhri in Spy. Their screen timing was meager but us Indians are satisfied creatures and we’ll always be as excited for a 3 minute role as we’d be for a 3 hour performances.
Let’s hope that all this is just the start and that India will keep seeing International artists and celebrities and their gracious visits!
Aamina Rahim
Image Sources:
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The Viewspaper