Doctor takes Bollywood to wards

Some of the cast during shooting in India

An eye consultant has written a Bollywood film script - and it is to be shot in the hospital where he works.

Nikhil Kaushik also makes a brief appearence in Bhavishya: The Future, which will use Wrexham Maelor Hospital as its backdrop.

Veteran Indian film and TV star Saeed Jaffrey has been cast in the movie, which is a medics' love story linking Wales and India.

Wards and operating theatres will be used for weekend and evening filming.

Details of the film were revealed after it emerged that Hollywood's Johnny Depp was being linked with a film biography of a former down and out in Wrexham.

In true Bollywood style, Bhavishya: The Future is a love story wrapped up in music and dance. Lyrics for two of the six songs have been penned by Mr Kaushik himself.

The consultant ophthalmic surgeon came to work at the hospital in 1987 and said he wanted to paint an accurate view of what life was like for doctors.

International community

Speaking ahead of filming, Mr Kaushik said: "Medicine is now a truly international career, with doctors often moving between countries as they undertake their training and take up new posts.

"In the Maelor hospital there are doctors from countries across the world, and I am originally from India".

He said he saw an opportunity to develop a story that reflects this international community and the effect it has on the people who may be working far from home.

So Mr Kaushik said real locations were being used at the hospital, as well as his own house.

He has just returned from 10 days of filming in Delhi and northern India, and the first scenes in the UK will be shot this weekend including a party at the consultant's own house in Gwersyllt.

Some scenes for the Bollywood movie have already been shot

He is part-financing the film, which he said will be released in the UK.

Saeed Jaffrey, known for his roles in films including A Passage to India and My Beautiful Laundrette, will be taking part in the party scene with some "health-related messages".

The film's two main romantic leads are played by medical students from Manchester.

On Thursday, writer Stephen Smith confirmed that he was seeking Hollywood star Johnny Depp to play him in an autobiographical film Addict, part of which is also due to be filmed in Wrexham.

The movie charts Mr Smith's own life as a drug dependent thief drifting around Britain and is due for release next March.

Wales' scenery is no stranger to providing the backing for Bollywood movies after initiatives to attract producers by the Wales Screen Commission.

Richard Coombs, North Wales film manager for the commission, said they had a good relationship with Bollywood producers. Members of the commission had traveled to an exhibition in India earlier this year.

"They (Bollywood producers) enjoy the diversity of the locations that we can offer," he said.

In 2003 a song and dance sequence for the Bollywood film Kyoni! Ho Gaya Na Pyar (Love Has Finally Happened) was shot at Dolbadarn Castle and the Llanberis mountain railway in north Wales.