On the last day of his three-day visit to India, President Obama addressed a 2,000-strong audience at Siri Fort auditorium in New Delhi. He spoke about Indo-American relations, economic partnership and religious tolerance - but he began his speech with a crowd-pleasing quote from what is arguably India's most famous export to the world, Bollywood. In his opening remarks, President Obama borrowed a famous filmy phrase from superstar Shah Rukh Khan's movie Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
"Senorita, bade bade deshon mein...you know what I mean", POTUS said, to deafening applause from the audience. In the movie the line is spoken by Shah Rukh Khan to heroine Kajol. The original dialogue is: "It's alright Senorita..bade bade deshon mein aisi choti choti baatein hoti rehti hain."
Shah Rukh had this say about President Obama's speech:
Proud 2 b part of the gender & religion equality speech of Pres. Obama. Sad he couldn't do the Bhangra...next time Chaiyya Chaiyya for sure
#DDLJ and #SRKPrideOfIndia are currently trending on Twitter.
We say, why stop at DDLJ? Given his fairly crisp Hindi accent, we think POTUS could well have worked some other famous Bollywood dialogues into his speeches.
Here are five suggestions - lines that POTUS could have wielded with powerful impact and make relevant to the newly forged partnership between India and USA.
1. "Don't underestimate the power of the common man" - In Chennai Express, Shah Rukh Khan's character Rahul says this all the time.
2. "Aal izz well" - Aamir Khan's catchphrase in 3 Idiots. The song Mitwa from Aamir's film Lagaan was played at the close of President Obama's townhall address.