The last time the German embassy was in the news, it was when the ambassador, Michael Steiner, hosted a satsang on his birthday, right after the government announced it was replacing German with Sanskrit as the third language in central government schools. And now, the ambassador, along with former external affairs minister Salman Khurshid are a hit on social media for their video recreation of the Kal Ho Naa Ho title track. In the video, the ambassador, as a very believable SRK in a white kurta pyjama, walks down Rajpath, while watching his wife, Eliese Steiner, playing Preity Zinta, being wooed by Khurshid's Saif Ali Khan. The video opens with the ambassador and his wife, both self-confessed Bollywood addicts, watching the original movie, and soon finding themselves in the roles of SRK and Preity. Steiner lip-syncs to perfection (it apparently took him weeks) and even pulls off the perfect signature SRK pose, while his wife and Khurshid manage to twirl like in the song.

The video, like a typical Bollywood film, had a star-studded launch. Saif Ali Khan was present at the launch, along with mother Sharmila Tagore and Javed Akhtar, who penned the song. The director of KHNH, Karan Johar, had sent a video message congratulating the embassy. Filmi posters, titled Lebe Jetzt (Live Now), welcomed guests to the venue and the ambassador 'warned' everyone about his lack of sense of humour and his bad lip-syncing skills before the video was screened. But he had nothing to worry about, because once the video started, the very prim and proper diplomatic guests cheered at every frame and continued throughout the song. Many embassy officials featured as back-up dancers and extras in the video and were cheering for their ambassador and colleagues during the screening.

The director, Sumit Osmand Shaw, then took to the mic to welcome his cast and asked the special guests about their reactions to the video. Akhtar joked, “This video has proven my years old philosophy right ­ politicians and diplomats are all indeed very good actors in life. We have documented proof of that now.“ Addressing his video version, Khurshid, Saif said, “Seeing this video and how good this Salman bhai is in it, I think I should start thinking of a career in politics.“ To which Khurshid jokingly replied, “It'll be a lot tougher (for you) playing me in politics than it was for me to act.“

We asked Khurshid about his shooting experience and he said, “It did not take them much time to convince me. For me, the shooting was just one extended day of work. I was at the embassy at 10am and was done by 10pm.“ We spoke to the ambassador after the video and he said, “This was just our way of paying tribute to the Indian film industry. Diplomacy is always considered to be a very serious business, involving meetings and conferences, so we decided to change that image. Diplomacy is about reaching out to people and Bollywood is a sure-shot way to do that ­ people connect to it both in India and in Germany. My wife and I have always loved Bollywood films and have seen over 150 of them. I have always respected actors, but after having done all the lip-syncing and the smiling and dancing, I have new found respect for Shah Rukh Khan, Saif and every other actor, because it is so difficult.“ Eliese, his wife, added, “He does not speak any Hindi, so for him it was even more difficult. But the whole experience, although terrifying at first, was a lot of fun.“

The video was shot last month within the embassy and a few scenes at India Gate. Director Sumit told us, “Bollywood and Shah Rukh Khan are huge in Germany. There was another version in which German students recreated this song, and we decided to stick to the same song. The ambassador worked really hard on the words which were in a language he did not understand at all. We're just glad that everyone enjoyed the video because it was a lot of hard work for everyone involved.“

Sharmila Tagore joked, “I must confess, I've had a sneak peak to the video. It's great and looks like everyone had a lot of fun. Salman might have had a little too much fun. I was offered the role of the doctor and I regret saying no now. Please consider me whenever you think of doing this again.“