German ambassador to India Michael Steiner, actor Saif Ali Khan, his mother, Sharmila Tagore, and Javed Akhtar launched a remake of the music video for the song Kal Ho Naa Ho featuring Steiner’s wife, Eliese, former foreign minister Salman Khurshid and the ambassador himself.
The project titled Lebe Jetzt!, which means Kal Ho Na Ho (There May Or May Not Be A Tomorrow) in German, was launched on Friday at the German embassy in New Delhi.
Karan Johar, director of the film, also titled Kal Ho Naa Ho, and Sonu Nigam, who sang the song, sent video messages for the occasion from New York and Mumbai respectively.
More than 700 guests got to watch the Indo-German tribute to Bollywood.
“Traditionally, diplomacy has got to do with government-to-government relations, but modern democracy has got to do with people-to-people relations and that’s what we’ve achieved through the music video,” Steiner said.
The song’s lyricist, Akhtar, said, “This music video has proved my worst suspicions right; I’d always suspected that politicians and diplomats are actors, and now we have a documentary proof.”
The original video for the song was shot in the US, with the actors in western clothing; the remake was shot in the capital featuring the German ambassador as Shah Rukh Khan and his wife as Preity Zinta in ethnic Indian wear. It also features former foreign minister Khurshid as Ali Khan.
The ambassador admitted struggling with the lip syncing. He also said his wife has a collection of 150 Bollywood movies out of which the 1959 film Kaagaz Ke Phool is her favourite.
