Opening act: Grammy-winning Indian musician Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt will open the four-month-long festival with invitation-only concerts
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Indonesians will have the chance to get to know India's culture better in the coming months during a four-month festival launched by the Indian Embassy.
The festival, which is named the Festival of India in Indonesia, with 'Sahabat Indonesia' (Indonesia's Friend) as its official slogan, will run from January to May.
The official start date of the festival will be on Jan. 26, the anniversary of the India's constitution that came into force in 1950. It aims to bring the vibrancy and vigor of India's social, economic and cultural engagement with Indonesia to a new level.
Indian ambassador to Indonesia Gurjit Singh said during a recent speech that the festival was by far the most ambitious and diversified people-to-people engagement undertaken by the embassy.
The opening day of the festival will feature an invitation-only performance by Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, a Grammy-winning Indian musician. Bhatt is set to perform at the Jakarta Theater on the opening day of the festival and on Jan. 28 at the Westin Hotel in Bali.
Bhatt's performances will be the only closed door event during the festival. All other events will be open to the public and will not charge any entrance fees.
The festival will also take place in 15 cities in Indonesia, including Yogyakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, Surakarta, Semarang, Bogor, Serang, Purwakarta, Makassar, Medan, Padang, Banda Aceh, Samarinda, Balikpapan and Palembang. The embassy hopes that the people of Indonesia in different regions will have a glimpse of India.
In recent months, the government of India has also taken several initiatives by launching International Yoga Day, Clean India Campaign, Digital India and Make In India. The embassy aims to bring these experiences to Indonesia as well through the festival.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry's Information and Public Diplomacy director general Esti Andayani said that the festival would strengthen the bond between the two countries, which was based on friendship and cooperation, shared history, cultures, heritage and the ideals of peace, stability and progress.
'This [festival] is a small tribute by India to Indonesia, a long-standing friend, close partner and neighbor,' Singh said.
The festival will feature folk dances, dance dramas, puppet shows, musical performances, exhibitions, seminars, mall promotions and screenings of Bollywood movies and documentaries in several prestigious locations in Jakarta.
The embassy's first secretary for information and culture, Madan Kumar Ghildiyal, said that performances and shows during the festival would be delivered in ways to appeal to local residents.
For example, all of the Bollywood movies have been dubbed in Indonesian, according to Ghildiyal.
'We dubbed the movies so that it reaches more Indonesian people,' Ghildiyal told The Jakarta Post.
'We have films with English subtitles. It is very difficult to enjoy a movie by reading English subtitles. Secondly, we expect to communicate with the people in their own language,' he added.
The songs in the movies, however, would not be dubbed because Ghildiyal said it was impossible to dub them.
There will be around 20 movies featured during the festival ' all popular, according to Ghildiya.
Ghildiyal added that the embassy would also introduce Indian literature to local readers during the festival by inviting several Indian authors and academics to Indonesia.
'Our intention is for them to come here. But apart from the Festival of India, they will also participate in some local events, so that it is more meaningful and leads to more exchange between India and Indonesia,' he said.
Other than promoting cultural exchange, Ghildiyal said India would also showcase some of its navy ships in Surabaya, East Java, during the first week of March as a symbol of the country's wish to have stronger military cooperation with Indonesia.
'This [military cooperation] is an important aspect. First, we start with people-to-people contact and then there is the economic contact like commerce and investment. We want to take it one step further with military cooperation,' Ghildiyal said.
For more information and schedules, visit indianembassyjakarta.com
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