Manmohan argues for Bollywood as foreign policy instrument

New Delhi, June 11 (IANS) Celebrating the global success of Indian cinema, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday said the soft power of India in some ways can be a very important instrument of foreign policy.

'Wherever I go in the Middle East, in Africa, people talk about Indian films and the Indian film industry - Bollywood. So, that is a new way of influencing the world about the growing importance of India,' he told the fresh recruits of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) here.

'Soft power is equally important in the new world of diplomacy,' he said.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had said in his budget speech that India was trying to project its soft power as viable economic option to generate business and culture links globally.