Indian film star Raj Kapoor
Raj Kapoor, India’s iconic actor and film maker, was also immensely popular in Romania in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1958, he was invited to visit the country to attend the screening of his latest work, Shree 420.
Cristina Mateescu, 04.04.2025, 14:00
Post-WWII, the rapidly growing Indian cinema became a bit hit across the communist bloc, including Romania, being hailed as an alternative to American and Western films. Raj Kapoor himself visited Romania in January 1958 to promote his latest film Shree 420 and was welcomed with great enthusiasm. The film was praised by the local socialist press as a critique of capitalism, which it saw as morally corrupt, and as a tribute to the ordinary man.
During his Romanian trip, Raj Kapoor met politicians, film professionals, as well as school children, and was taken on trips to the mountains to be shown the local attractions. He also visited the country’s new Film Production Centre in Buftea, a brand-new sprawling complex near Bucharest. Like its counterparts in the eastern bloc, the socialist regime in Romania was fully aware of the extraordinary power of cinema to win hearts and minds and it soon began to pour huge resources into developing the country’s film industry, with Soviet cinema as a model. After completion, in 1959, the centre would also be used for the shooting of a number of international co-productions in the decades to come.
Stay tuned for a live report from January 1958 from the launch of Raj Kapoor’s film in Bucharest and snippets from the Indian star’s interview to Radio Bucharest’s Catinca Ralea.
