Trump displays his knowledge of Bollywood: DDLJ, Sholay, SMZS, Baahubali

Ahmedabad: U.S. president Donald Trump obviously read up a lot about India, and so the silly side of his speech at the Namaste Trump event organised for his pleasure in Ahmedaba was peppered with references to Bollywood. In particular, he referenced two all-time favourite films, Sholay and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, for which used the popular abbreviation, (DDLJ).

While he didn't say he watched them, the U.S. president said people "take great joy" in watching Bollywood films and understanding Indian culture through them.

"This is the country that produces nearly 2,000 movies a year from the hub of genius and creativity known as Bollywood," he told the gathering of about 100,000 people packed into the stadium.

"All over the planet people take great joy in scenes of bhangra, music and dance, romance and drama, and classic Indian films like DDLJ and Sholay," Trump said.

While the multi-starrer Sholay, labelled a "curry western" by many, is an action-adventure film from 1975, DDLJ is a romance from 1991 with scenes ripped off from the Audrey Hepburn starrer Love in the Afternoon.

This is not the first effort by the US president to use popular culture to strike a chord with movie loving Indians.

Trump's backroom have clearly told him Bollywood is the way to burrow into Indians' graces. Ahead of his trip to India, Trump tweeted a meme video in which his face was superimposed on the hit movie-character Baahubali.

Before that, he praised Ayushmann Khurrana's latest release Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan.

On a tweet complimenting the movie for celebrating a same-sex love story on the celluloid, Trump last week commented "great".

Former US president Barack Obama also referenced DDLJ during his 2015 visit to India when he quoted Shah Rukh's famous dialogue from the iconic film.

"Last celebration here we celebrated festival of lights in Mumbai. We danced with some children. Unfortunately, we were not able to schedule any dancing in this visit. 'Senorita, bade bade desho mein'... You know what I mean," Obama said while addressing a town hall event in Delhi.