UK Culture Secretary highlights stronger India-UK creative and sporting ties

NEW DELHI: UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lisa Nandy, on Saturday reaffirmed the United Kingdom’s deepening partnership with India across the creative, cultural, and sporting sectors during her visit to Delhi.

Following a bilateral meeting, Nandy said both nations share ambitious goals and strong political will at the highest levels to expand cooperation in these areas.

“We’re very pleased to have the bilateral meeting to discuss how we can cooperate much more closely. Prime Minister Modi has signalled his personal commitment to taking what is already a huge Indian success story through film, fashion and the wider creative industries and really putting rocket boosters onto them for the coming years. Our Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, very much agrees with him – that is exactly what our UK government is trying to do, and we have a lot of ambition for what India and the UK can achieve together,” she said.

Nandy also visited Yash Raj Studios in Mumbai, where she explored new opportunities for film collaboration between both countries. She stressed the importance of expanding Bollywood productions across the UK and deepening technological partnerships between British and Indian film companies.

“When we were at Yash Raj Studios yesterday, I was very keen to discuss how we could ensure that we have more Bollywood films filmed on location, not just in London, but all over the United Kingdom, but also how British companies can work very closely with Indian companies, with new technology that’s being developed that is really enhancing cinematic experience. I want to see a cinematic revolution across the UK and India with British and Indian companies collaborating to be able to take those films to the next level.”

Turning to sports diplomacy, Nandy expressed enthusiasm about India’s growing role in global women’s sports and its upcoming hosting of the Women’s Cricket World Cup. She also praised the Indian Women’s Cricket Team, who she met during her visit.

“I’m very much looking forward to seeing India host the Womens’ World Cup, and I was delighted to meet some of the Indian Womens’ Cricket Team on my visit. They will be coming to the UK this summer with the Mens’ team as well, and we are looking forward to welcoming them. We think those young women will be a real inspiration to young women in the United Kingdom,” she said, adding that she hopes the team will engage directly with UK schools and communities.

Speaking about the recent terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, she expressed solidarity with the victims. “Our Prime Minister, Kier Starmer, was very pleased to be able to send his condolences directly to Prime Minister Modi and to send our condolences to the families of the victims of these appalling attacks. The UK stands with India against terrorism, always, in whatever form,” she said. “When you’re hurting, we’re hurting.”

She added, “We’ve been talking between the UK and India for quite some time about the way that we think we can collaborate much more closely together to make sure that people both in the UK and in India can benefit from and have access to many of the cultural artefacts that stem back to the very different era.” (ANI)