'Watching Shah Rukh, admiring Sachin common to India, Britain'

India and Britain share a lot culturally including watching Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and admiring master batsman Sachin Tendulkar, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday.

India and Britain share a lot culturally including watching Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and admiring master batsman Sachin Tendulkar, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Wednesday.

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"India and Britain share so much culturally... whether it is watching Shah Rukh Khan, eating the same food, speaking the same language and of course, watching the same sport," he said during his address at the Infosys campus here today.

"Many of you in this room would have grown up revering Kapil Dev. I did the same with Ian Botham. And Sachin Tendulkar, the Little Master, is so talented that wherever you are from, you can't help admire him as he hits another century," the British premier said.

"Indeed, culture is so important to our relationship that it's going to be a significant part of what I talk to Prime Minister Singh about on Thursday," he said.

Outlining the commonality between the two countries, Cameron said he believed that both Britain and India are natural partners.

Britain is one of the world's oldest democracies and India is the world's largest, he said.

"We have a shared commitment to pluralism and tolerance. We have deep and close connections among our people, with nearly two million people of Indian origin living in the UK. They make an enormous contribution to our country, way out of proportion to their size, in business, the arts and sport," the 43-year-old premier said.

"You have a wonderful tradition of democratic secularism," he said.

"Home to dozens of faiths and hundreds of languages, people are free to be Muslim, Hindu or Sikh or speak Marathi, Punjabi or Tamil. But at the same time and without any contradictions, they are all Indian too," he added.