Bollywood, real estate attract NRIs

Those who crib about the 'scissor-friendly' censor board in India should heave a huge sigh of relief that they are not in Saudi Arabia.

"We saw Murder minus Mallika Sherawat," an NRI told the audience at an interactive session with Maharashtra government officials. "Hindi films in Saudi are at least an hour shorter than they are in India," he explained later.

Bollywood and booming real estate in Mumbai were the main attractions for the NRIs at the fourth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas meet at Hyderabad, yesterday.

Even media savvy Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had to rely on filmmaker Prakash Jha to bring in people for the interactive session on Bihar.

Maharashtra's presentation, where showman Subhash Ghai and Jackie Shroff were present, ended on a rocking note.

The booming real estate in Mumbai that provides for great investment opportunities was another attraction that kept the NRIs interested in the dragging state government presentation.