Govt plans 'India, Land of Yoga' campaign with Julia Roberts as its face

The tourism ministry is planning a global campaign to project India as the land of yoga, with Hollywood actor Julia Roberts as the campaign's face.

Roberts has been associated with yoga since she shot in India for the film Eat Pray Love at an ashram near Gurugram in 2009. She practises Pratyahara, which is one of the eight limbs of yoga that is said to help practitioners withdraw their senses.

"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," said a tourism ministry official.

Roberts has often spoken about how yoga helps 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," said the official.

The objective of the 'India, land of Yoga' campaign is to get foreigners to come to the country and stay for extended periods of time to learn yoga, says The Telegraph. The tourism ministry hopes to begin the campaign by 21 June, which has been recognised as International Yoga Day by the UN since 2015 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi led participants from more than 80 countries in a mass yoga demonstration.

Figures seem to back the tourism ministry's belief that a campaign based on yoga will bring in tourists. About 745 million people around the world practise yoga, but in 2014, only 20 per cent of the 230,000 foreigners who came to India as medical tourists visited yoga or wellness centres. "Through this campaign, we want to emphasise that learning yoga in its land of origin will be a completely different experience," another official said.