Indian Cinema Goes English

Bollywood's latest films are starting to speak to a new audience in their own language - English. Once used only by ruthless pith-helmeted colonials in films about the Raj, English-language Indian cinema has come of age when Bollywood has started to explore the contradictions between western lifestyles and traditional values.

The latest is The Last Lear, a film that pitches Bollywood's most recognizable face, Amitabh Bachchan, as a thespian who yearns to take to the stage for a final performance as King Lear. The film, which is entirely in English, contains no songs, no disco dances and no family reunions.

The Last Lear almost did not happen, ironically because of a fight over language. On Wednesday, the Mumbai premiere was stopped after a rightwing politician, Raj Thackeray, accused Bachchan's wife of insulting Marathi, a language widely spoken in and around Mumbai, by saying she preferred to speak Hindi. It went ahead only after Bachchan apologized.

Arindam Chaudhuri, the film's producer, said: "English is part of modern middle-class modern life in India. We talk, think and dream in English, that's why we wanted to do the film. What's changed in India is the audience."

He said five years ago moviegoers were mainly young men who saw about eight films a year. "Now going to the cinema is a family outing ... and they don't want to see singing and dancing every time they go.

Director Rahul Bose, who is making a film based on Moth Smoke, the first novel by British Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid, said: "It's a risk doing an English movie. Producers take a leap of faith. We often wonder: can you get a big star? Can you sell it to Hindi-speaking audiences?"