New Delhi, April 19: Bearded men have done their bit. Now India's tourism ministry is banking on a Pretty Woman.
Sources in the Union government said the ministry was planning a global advertisement drive to promote India as the land of yoga with Hollywood star Julia Roberts as the face of the campaign.
The Pretty Woman star has been associated with yoga for several years and is likely to be approached for the campaign, a senior official told The Telegraph. "The plan has to be approved by tourism minister Mahesh Sharma and the Prime Minister's Office before we approach the actress, but having an international face recognised for practicing yoga is crucial for the success of the campaign."
Roberts, the official said, often speaks about how yoga has helped her cope with stress. "This has helped promote yoga in the West. The actress is also an Indophile and keeps coming to the country incognito."
The Oscar-winning actress had started practising yoga while shooting for Ryan Murphy's Eat Pray Love in 2009. A part of the film - where the protagonist discovers her spiritual self while staying in an ashram - was shot near Gurgaon. In real life, Roberts is known to practise Pratyahara - one of the eight limbs of yoga - said to enable practitioners to withdraw their senses to avoid distractions.
In a TV interview in 2010, the 48-year-old had even said she believes in and practises Hinduism and is a devotee of the late spiritual guru Neem Karoli Baba.
A government source said the campaign - to be called "India, land of Yoga" - would play on India's soft power to enhance its brand value and to get foreigners to visit the country and stay for extended periods to learn yoga. The plan, officials said, was to roll out the campaign in June, but conceded the deadline is likely to be missed.
On June 21 last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had led Indians - and participants from over 80 countries - in a mass yoga demonstration on Rajpath. Among those present was Ramdev, the yoga televangelist, and a host of yoga masters, ministers, party workers, soldiers, bureaucrats and diplomats. June 21 is now celebrated as International Yoga Day, recognised by the UN.
The tourism ministry believes that about 745 million people practise yoga worldwide. But in 2014, only about 20 per cent of the 230,000 foreigners who visited India as medical tourists were reported to have visited yoga or wellness centres, sources said. "Through this campaign, we want to emphasise that learning yoga in its land of origin will be a completely different experience," another official told this newspaper.
People in yoga schools said the government should also focus on building capacity in these centres. "If the idea is to get people to come here to learn yoga, the government should support yoga centres with funds," said Rajvi Mehta, a senior teacher at Pune's Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute.
Tourism industry insiders, despondent about falling foreigner footfalls, said the government should pursue the project "seriously". Subhash Goyal, of the Indian Tour Operators Association, said the plan "is good" but the government should realise that wellness tourism would pick up only if the standards of services were world-class and affordable.
