Hema Malini becomes first Bollywood star to appear on top Russian talk show

Hema Malini

Russia's romance with Raj Kapoor is well-documented. But very few know that Hema Malini too enjoys wide popularity in the country. In what can only be seen as a validation to her popularity, the senior actor and MP will be appearing on Andrey Malakhov's talk show, Tonight. The TV show's crew has currently flown down to India to shoot the candid portions of the episode. Malini will film the live portion of the episode in October in Russia, which will then air in November.

Malini says, "It's an honour to be the first Indian celebrity to appear on this show. Russians love my film Seeta Aur Geeta [1972] even today. I was not aware of my popularity there till I was invited by our Speaker in Parliament [Sumitra Mahajan]. So I went there in the capacity of a parliamentarian."

She recollects how overwhelmed she was by the love she received from the Russian population. "They were standing on the streets with flowers, as they wanted to see Zita Gita - that's how they call Seeta Aur Geeta," she smiles, before adding with wide-eyed delight, "It is the most popular film there. They don't even know Sholay [1975]!"

The Tonight crew will leave tomorrow, only to fly back to India on September 8. They will cover Malini's dance festival Synergy - a dance fusion, which will showcase Georgia's popular ballet dance group Sukhishvili and traditional Indian dance forms as part of Jaya Smriti (named after the actor's mother).

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