Asian festival to show bomb film

The festival aims to challenge the traditional Bollywood image

A controversial Indian movie that has already been banned in its home country will kick off an Asian film festival in the UK on Friday.

The 11th Bite The Mango festival begins in Bradford with the film Black Friday, based on the 1993 Mumbai bombings.

An Indian court has blocked its release while a legal case is ongoing.

Pakistani screen siren Meera has also been invited to the festival. She caused uproar for a previous film with steamy screen scenes.

Director Anurag Kashyap, 33, said he believed there is a wider problem of general unease about hard-hitting, factual films dealing with controversial subjects.

"They are saying that the film should not prejudice the accused before the court rules," Kashyap told Reuters after arriving in England.

"My contention is that the film is not judging anybody. It's based on a book which has been out for more than two years."

'Not only Bollywood'

He said Black Friday portrayed the mindset of one of the 1993 bombers before the attacks and his coming to terms with the scale of what he had done afterwards.

Mango director Irfan Ajeeb said the problems faced by Black Friday and other Indian films were particularly frustrating for directors trying to shed the "Bollywood" stereotype of colourful yet predictable musical extravaganzas.

"We are deliberately showing this side of Indian cinema," he said.

"Indian cinema is not only Bollywood. Mango shouldn't shy away from films like this that have a message; at the end of the day it reflects the world we live in."

He invited Pakistani screen siren Meera to represent her country at the festival in recognition of her efforts to break down the taboos of South Asian cinema.

One of her kissing scenes caused uproar among Islamic groups in her native country who issued threats against her.

However Meera has shrugged off the outcry.