On October 10, the last day of Celebrate Cinema 2025 festival, Gautam Adani, Chairman of Adani Group talked about ‘When Art Becomes Soft Power Of A Nation’ in the presence of Rajkumar Hirani, Kartik Aaryan, Mahaveer Jain, Dr Priti Adani and Subhash Ghai. Bollywood Hungama attended the session, and in this article, we bring you some of the highlights from his speech.
Gautam Adani gives powerful speech at Subhash Ghai’s Whistling Woods International: “Don, Zanjeer provoked restless dreamer within me…through Top Gun, America shaped perceptions, projected power”; SLAMS Slumdog Millionaire: “It showed Dharavi’s poverty for Western applause”
Gautam Adani began by telling the students, “What a remarkable privilege it is to stand before you this evening. Never did I imagine that an infrastructure entrepreneur like me would be speaking to some of the most creative minds of the country. This year is indeed special, marking the centenary celebrations of two towering legends, Guru Dutt ji and Raj Kapoor ji. Together, they taught us that cinema is not just entertainment. It is a poetry in motion, philosophy in colour and the heartbeat of a nation finding its voice.”
He said, “Raj Kapoor ji beautifully understood this. He had sung ‘Kisi ki muskuraahaton pe ho nisaar. Kisika dard mil sake toh le udhaar’. This was not just lyrics. It was a philosophy that was and remains of the soft power of Bharat of feelings expressed through art. What I also find fascinating is how brilliantly his portrayal of a common man touched a chord with Soviet audiences in the post-World War II era. Raj Kapoor ji was India’s finest advocate of soft power, building a cultural bond that uplifted India’s ties with the Soviet for generations.”
Gautam Adani then revealed, “A few years back, over breakfast, Subhash ji shared a story of his trip to America. An immigration officer looked at his passport and commented, ‘Oh, India? The land of Gandhi. What a remarkable film!’. In that instant, a nation’s identity was stamped not by its politics or power but by a story, a film that had captured the world’s memory. I vividly recall Subhash ji telling me that this simple comment made him question his life’s mission. Why must it take Richard Attenborough from across the ocean to tell us Indians the story of our Mahatma? And so, I learned how Whistling Woods was born, an institute built not by walls but by a single man’s dream, a dream that Bharat must tell her own stories.”
Gautam Adani then spoke about his rags-to-riches journey and stated, “Action-packed Hindi films shaped my ambitions and my imagination. Films like Don and Zanjeer always provoked the restless dreamer within me. Filmon ne hi humein sikhaya bhagna mat, darna mat aur agar manzil duur ho, phir bhi raasta badalna mat!”
He commented, “This is the magic of stories. They don’t just entertain us. They transform us. Yet, every light casts a shadow and the power of storytelling can be a double-edged sword. In the right hands, it shapes nations. In the wrong hands, it manipulates minds.”
Gautam Adani explained, “When America promotes a global blockbuster movie like Top Gun, it is not just selling cinema. It is projecting power. Behind the dogfight and heroism lies brilliantly crafted narratives; one that showcases the might of the US military, drives national pride and exports an image of American courage to every corner of the world. These films don’t just tell stories. They serve as strategic instruments designed to shape perceptions, project US strength and define US identity. The list is endless – Independence Day, Black Hawk Down, American Sniper, Rocky, Apollo 13, Rambo, etc. Each film was a global super hit. It not just projected America’s might but also its moral authority, proving that while soldiers may conquer lands, the storytellers conquer mindset.”
He remarked, “For too long, India’s voice has been firm within our own borders but failed beyond them. That silence has led to the projection of Bharat through their lenses, painted by bias. Nothing reveals this bias more than the British film Slumdog Millionaire, a spectacle that showed Dharavi’s poverty for Western applause. It turned our pain into foreign award-winning ceremonies.”
At the end of the speech, Gautam Adani insisted that we should own our stories. He said, “Never again will the story of any Indian Mahatma be written through the lens of a foreigner. Never again will the sorrow of our slums be sold as a spectacle to foreign markets!”
As expected, there was a thunderous applause and a standing ovation after his speech was concluded. Even in between, students and other attendees clapped to show their appreciation for the inspiring speech. Subhash Ghai asked students to take a copy of this speech and go through it again and again. During the felicitation, Mahaveer Jain was the first one to be called on stage by the Showman, followed by Kartik Aaryan, Rajkumar Hirani and Jackie Shroff.
More Pages: Slumdog Millionaire Box Office Collection , Slumdog Millionaire Movie Review
BOLLYWOOD NEWS – LIVE UPDATES
Catch us for latest Bollywood News, New Bollywood Movies update, Box office collection, New Movies Release , Bollywood News Hindi, Entertainment News, Bollywood Live News Today & Upcoming Movies 2025 and stay updated with latest hindi movies only on Bollywood Hungama.