Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is on a week-long visit to India, met a host of Bollywood celebrities and businessmen in Mumbai on Tuesday. Trudeau, accompanied by his wife Sophie and kids, Xavier and Ella, met Shah Rukh Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Aamir Khan, R Madhavan and Anupam Kher among many Bollywood celebs.
Sporting an intricate golden sherwani, the Canadian PM impressed all with his love for India. Not just him, his family too turned up in Indian clothes -- wife Sophie wore a cream-coloured embroidered sari with matching pearl chandbali (ear rings) and maang tika (a head ornament) while his daughter wore a legenga choli and son, a churidar kurta respectively.
Tweeting about his meet, Trudeau wrote: “Tonight, we celebrated stronger ties & new co-production opportunities between Bollywood and the Canadian Film Industry. And who better to help than @iamsrk himself... Great to meet you!”
Anupam Kher too wrote on Twitter, “It was such a pleasure to meet the Canadian Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau & his family. What a charming & great conversationalist he is. Talked about people, culture and of course cinema.:) #Canada #India #lndianCinema #BendItLikeBeckham #SilverLiningsPlaybook.”
Actor-director Farhan Akhtar too was delighted to meet Trudeau. He wrote: “Was an honour & a pleasure to meet the Hon. Prime Minister of Canada, @JustinTrudeau & his lovely wife, Sophie. Sir, your leadership in the discourse for ending gender discrimination serves as constant inspiration to us all.”
Madhavan was floored by the “grace and charm” of the Canadian PM. “@JustinTrudeau such a pleasure and honour meeting you sir. Your relatability, grace and charm was most endearing and its easy to see why you are the Pride and toast of Canada.Have a lovely rest of the tour,” he tweeted.
Earlier Trudeau along with his family visited the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. They also visited Swaminarayan Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar.
The Trudeau’s visit has been called “usual” by veteran diplomats and criticised by a Canadian watchdog.
A veteran Indian diplomat, told HT, that in his long experience with bilateral visits, he had never experienced a trip of this nature, where the visiting dignitary spent so little time in official engagements with counterparts in the Indian government.
He further added, it was very surprising that six cabinet ministers accompanying the Canadian PM had scant official engagements, except for foreign minister Chrystia Freeland, who will meet external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj ahead of the meeting between the prime ministers in New Delhi on February 23.