Jolie's Bodyguards Charged With 'insults to Religion'

It is a fight scene that is unlikely to make the final cut. Three British bodyguards, working for Angelina Jolie, were arrested today in Mumbai after allegedly racially abusing and manhandling parents at a school where the Hollywood star was filming.

Jolie was in the city to film A Mighty Heart, about the American journalist Daniel Pearl who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002. Jolie was inside the Anjuman-e-Islam, a Muslim educational establishment in the city, when a scuffle erupted outside the school gates.

Tempers flared when locals were allegedly barred by Jolie's bodyguards from picking up children. Local news photographers appeared to be shoved aside and television pictures showed the star's minders wagging fingers at those trying to get inside.

"They called us bloody Indians and pushed us," cried an agitated Ayesha Khan, whose daughter is a student at the Anjuman-i-Islam.

The film unit was using the 116-year-old school as a makeshift Pakistani police station for a shot involving Daniel Pearl's wife Mariane, played by Jolie. The shoot was shifted out of the school today to an undisclosed location.

Police arrested the star's three bodyguards, Thomas McAdam, 47, Robert Dunn, 35, and Michael Brett, 50, for assault, intimidation and intention to cause a "breach in the peace".

All three were produced in court today, and have been released on bail of 25,000 rupees (£295) each. "They are all British nationals. They face charges of making threats and insults to religion," said deputy commissioner of police Brijesh Singh.

If convicted, the three could be jailed for up to three years. The minders' lawyer, Mahesh Jethmalani, denied in court that they had been abusive.

Dallington TV, a British production company that organised the shoot, blamed the scuffle on photographers and television cameramen that it said rushed the school to get pictures of Jolie.

Jolie and her partner Brad Pitt, who is producing A Mighty Heart, have been in India for almost a month, causing a stir whenever they turned up.

Trailed by paparazzi and journalists for much of their stay, the stars have given one press conference but for the most part have kept the press at a distance. However the media has filmed Jolie visiting refugee camps and meeting with Indian foreign ministry officials. Pitt has allowed the cameras in to show him building homes for the poor.

Rumours have swilled around suggesting that the couple, who are believed to have met on the set of the blockbuster Mr and Mrs Smith, might adopt an Indian baby, adding to the two children adopted from Cambodia and Ethiopia and the famous sojourn in Namibia for Jolie to give birth there.

Many newspapers have lingered on the rough treatment meted out by the Hollywood power couple's bodyguards. Pictures of them grabbing the throat of a British photographer were splashed across front pages last month.

Jolie has been in Mumbai, where Daniel Pearl lived for years, for seven days to film this portion of the movie. She has shot scenes on crowded suburban trains, in a McDonalds and in one of the city's busiest markets. She is expected to remain for a week.