Actor Richard Gere on Wednesday heaped praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hailing his message of “universal brotherhood and sisterhood” while leading a special Yoga session at the UN headquarters in New York City.

The veteran actor, who toplined several Hollywood hits including ‘Pretty Woman’, Primal Fear’, ‘An Officer and a Gentleman’, ‘Chicago’, ‘Days of Heaven’, and ‘Intersection’, was pictured sitting opposite PM Modi and performing Yoga on the lawns of the UN headquarters in New York.

Speaking to ANI, Gere said, “It is a lovely message. He (PM Modi) is a product of Indian culture and comes from a vast place like Indian culture does. This message of universal brotherhood and sisterhood is the one we want to hear again and again.”

The event saw participation from the President of the 77th United Nations General Assembly, Csaba Korosi, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and India’s permanent ambassador to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj.

The event was also attended by digital evangelist Vala Afshar, award-winning storyteller Jay Shetty, Indian chef and restaurateur Vikas Khanna and Grammy-winning musician Ricky Kej.

The special Yoga session led by PM Modi on the lawns of the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday entered the Guinness Book of World Records for drawing people of most nationalities performing Yoga together.

Addressing the special event, PM Modi said, “Yoga comes from India, it is a very old tradition. Yoga is free of copyrights, patents and royalty payments. Yoga is adaptable to your age, gender and fitness level. Yoga is portable and is truly universal.”

He added that last year, the entire world came together to support India’s proposal to celebrate 2023 as the ‘International Year of Millets’ and it was wonderful to see people, across nationalities, coming together again to mark Yoga Day.

“Let us use the power of Yoga not only to be healthy, and happy but also to be kind to ourselves and to each other. Let us use the power of Yoga to build bridges of friendship, a peaceful world and a cleaner, greener and sustainable future. Let us join hands together to realise the goal of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’,” PM Modi added.

With Inputs