BBC News Online: Entertainment: Film

Bollywood goes to LA

Amitabh Bachchan - with his wax likeness - stars as a crook

Director Sanjay Gupta made the $2.2m (£1.5m) Kaante in the city using Indian stars but local US supporting cast and crew.

The film is thought to be one of the first Bollywood films to be made in the US.

With both a Hindi and English soundtrack, backers hope Kaante will help strengthen East-West relations.

"Kaante will be a pioneering effort at integrating the Indian film industry with the rest of the world," said George Darley-Doran of Pritish Nandy Communications, the film's overseas marketing company.

The Indian movie industry is the most productive in the world.

Most of its movies focus on romance and family dramas, mixed with lots of singing and dancing.

Stars

Gupta said his film, which he also wrote, was about six Indian criminals living in Los Angeles.

They plan a bank robbery but things go wrong because one of them turns out to be an undercover police officer.

It stars Indian movie icon Amitabh Bachchan, playing the role of one of the crooks.

Other well-known Bollywood actors co-star, including Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty and Kumar Gaurav.

Gupta has directed three movies. The other two are Jung and Aatish, which is also a Hollywood-style action feature.

Kaanta, though different from the normal Bollywood fare, could add to the growing number of Indian movies gaining audiences abroad.

The UK has seen this popularity in the last year, with films such as Monsoon Wedding, Asoka and Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham making it into the box office charts.

Kaante will go on global release on 7 June.