Mumbai:
A glowing video tribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making news for all the wrong reasons. Among them is the fact that it borrows foreign visuals to illustrate how "
Mera Desh hai Mahaan (my country is great)".
The nearly seven minute video starts off with schoolchildren cheering "Modi Kaka", their answer to "Nehru Chacha".
As three young men perform to the booming sounds of a patriotic song, visuals of the Tour De France, the International Space Shuttle, Moscow's International Business Centre and the Dubai Expressway are shown in a montage as glimpses of PM Modi's India.
Responding to ridicule on social media, filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani, who has made the video, tells NDTV: "Images of developed countries have been used to show visions of Modi's new India."
Mr Nihalani does not hide his pride at coming up with "Modi Kaka' vs 'Nehru Chacha'.
"Once there was Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who was called "Nehru Chacha". Now children want to see a "Modi Kaka". I'm very happy I could do this through this song," he told NDTV.
The filmmaker said he had written to PM Modi last year to set up a "Modi Kaka Bal Divas award". The prime minister, he said, "must have been busy, he didn't respond."
But the filmmaker is also confronting questions linked to conflict of interest. Mr Nihalani was appointed by the government as the chief of the Censor Board in January. "Where is the conflict of interest? Censor Board chief is an honorary job," he said.
The music video was dedicated to PM Modi's achievements, said Mr Nihalani, an unabashed fan of the prime minister. "If this is chamchagiri (sycophancy) then I am proud of it."
Comments on social media have ripped into the video, which is being shown in cinema theatres during the interval of the Salman Khan blockbuster "Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo."