Tom Cruise in India for new series

NEW DELHI - Agence France-Presse

Tom Cruise poses in front of the landmark Taj Mahal in Agra, India. AP photo

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise arrived in India on Dec. 3 to promote the fourth instalment of his blockbuster “Mission: Impossible” series.

Sporting a big grin and sunglasses, the actor who is on a worldwide promotional tour for the movie, told reporters in the Indian capital New Delhi he was “very excited to be here” as cameramen jostled to film him.

Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, Cruise’s co-star in “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol”, later accompanied him to the northern city of Agra where the pair visited the Taj Mahal, India’s most famous monument to love.

“I have wanted to come here all my life,” Cruise said in Agra as TV cameras filmed the actor standing outside the white marble mausoleum.

Cruise, 49, then headed to Bollywood capital Mumbai where he was the guest of honour at a party hosted by Kapoor, according to the Press Trust of India.

The US actor was staying in Mumbai at the Taj Mahal Hotel, one of the sites attacked three years ago by Islamic militants who killed 166 people, the Indian national news agency said.

Cruise, who plays intelligence agent Ethan Hunt in the stunt-packed movie in which he seeks to avert a nuclear war, was to host a fan screening in Mumbai on Sunday, before the film is officially released in India later in December.

The media blitzkrieg to promote the thrill-laden film has already seen Cruise zip through Japan and Dubai.

The Mission: Impossible film series has so far grossed $2 billion worldwide.

The three earlier instalments, released in 1996, 2000 and 2006, were inspired by the Mission: Impossible TV series which aired in the mid-1960s.