“Don’t believe everything you see in the movies,” US secretary of state told students at Delhi University. “People watching a Bollywood movie... think everybody in India is beautiful and have dramatic lives and happy endings,” she said to laughter. “And if you watch American TV and movies, you’d think we don’t wear clothes and spend a lot of time fighting.”
Those were the images — exaggerated a bit for dramatic effect — that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton evoked Monday in a question-and-answer session with university students who probed her thinking on a range of topics — some personal.It was a classic Clinton moment, engaging in what she calls public diplomacy to argue that Americans have more in common with people around the globe than is often suggested. She blamed the media — not just the news but also entertainment — for distortions.
She said it is time for Indians and Americans to get over the stereotypes promoted by their movies and television.
"If Hollywood and Bollywood were how we all lived our lives, that would surprise me," she said with a tone of understatement. "And yet it's often the way our cultures are conveyed, isn't it?
"People watching a Bollywood movie in some other part of Asia think everybody in India is beautiful and they have dramatic lives and happy endings. And if you were to watch American TV and our movies you'd think that we don't wear clothes and we spend all our time fighting with each other."
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