Italy launches major initiative to promote soft power in India

New Delhi: European major Italy gave a big boost to its soft power and its reach in India by launching the Festival of Italian Culture in India that will showcase the best of cinema to fashion to literature.

Ambassador of Italy to India, Vincenzo de Luca, inaugurated the Festival of Italian Culture in India, in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Jaishankar and the Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations Dinesh Patnaik.

The event was hosted in the gardens of the Residence of Italy (New Delhi) in full compliance with health safety protocols. This was the first physical event hosted by Italy since the outbreak of the pandemic.


The rich cultural program presented will see an important focus on Italian poet Dante Alighieri, on the 700th anniversary of his death: from the participation of experts to the Jaipur Literature Festival, to musical, theatrical and cinematographic productions dedicated to the Divine Comedy.

Building on the successes of past years, many activities will be dedicated to cinema and to the collaboration between creative industries. Italy will be present in the principle Indian film festivals and will promote innovative projects in the sector.

A retrospective dedicated to Gianfranco Rosi and screenings of Pasolini and Rossellini's documentaries dedicated to India are also scheduled for open-air cinema sessions. There will also be a rich musical program with live and online concerts.

As far as design and fashion are concerned, an interesting project dedicated to increasing the presence of Italian fashion in India was illustrated, which will culminate in the second half of the year in an exhibition of Italian fashion inspired by India, to be hosted in an historic monument in Delhi.

An innovative project developed in collaboration with the Embassy of Brazil in New Delhi was also presented at the launch of the festival. Three groups of musicians Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino from Italy, Bianca Gismonti from Brazil and the Maadhavan from India presented two unpublished collaborations of the Ronda and the Samba, created digitally.

New Delhi and Rome have boosted their ties through a virtual summit last year where a slew of pacts were signed and two sides also focussed on reviving their defence partnership