The Media & Entertainment Fortnight was inaugurated on Friday at the India Pavilion as part of the ongoing EXPO2020 Dubai.
Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B), Government of India, and popular Indian actor R Madhavan inaugurated the sector floor. FICCI VP Mr Subhrakant Panda and DG Arun Chawla were also present.
The aim behind the grand launch is to showcase India’s prowess in the media and entertainment sector and promote collaborations with global counterparts and attract investments.
Chandra said it is matter of happiness and pride that the last fortnight of the EXPO2020, which concludes March 31, has been given to media and entertainment sector.
“Media and entertainment is the most vibrant and colourful sector of the country. The whole world recognises Indians wherever we go through our films. Today also happens to be Holi so we have inaugurated the media and entertainment fortnight with that. Dubai is one of the largest of markets. Not only the Indian diaspora but people in the Middle East are fans of Indian media and entertainment sector,” the I&B secretary told PTI here.
From age-old practices like Yoga, Ayurveda to highlighting the scientific achievements through Cosmic India, the interiors of the Indian Pavilion showcase the traditions, history, culture to what the country is achieving in space technology, Chandra said.
“India Pavilion is the reflection of the special relationship between India and the UAE under the prime ministership of Mr Narendra Modi that only four pavilions will be the permanent here after the Expo closes on March 31 among that are UAE, Saudi Arabia and India. India Pavilion has one of the largest footfalls.”
According to the IndiaExpo2020 official website, the footfall at the state-of-the-art Indian Pavilion is 15,987 (as on March 15, 2022).
The Indian government, Chandra said, is looking forward to collaborating at the government level with the UAE particularly on filming front.
“We will exchange a draft MoU (Memorandum of Understanding). We have a similar collaboration with 15 other countries and we look forward to this as there is so much of interest in the UAE and India. The discussions are going to start but it may take six to eight months,” he added.
The entrance gate of the Indian Pavilion has words from several Indian languages, including Tamil, Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, and Gujarati, engraved on the structure.
Made up of 600 individual blocks, the facade of the structure uses kinetic architecture to tell 75 stories about the history, geography, and literature of the country with an engrossing stimulus of “constant change”.
According to the tour guide, the blocks keep changing throughout the day and it signifies ‘India on the move’.
The pavilion is sitting on 1.2 acres of land gifted to the Indian government by the UAE government in 2018.
