'Lagaan' hits Top 10 in Britain

london: actor-producer aamir khan's maiden venture lagaan has stormed into the countrywide box office top 10 in britain and has become a craze even among non-asian film goers. lagaan is a dream aamir - one of india's biggest movie stars and most accomplished actors - believed in so passionately that when it didn't find a producer he donned the mantle himself.it is the story of a peasant uprising against british rule in 1893. its budget of 4 million pound, inflated by attention to detail such as flying in real english corsets and hats from london, is large by indian standards and the film is the first serious attempt by bollywood to make a "crossover" film to appeal to indian and western audiences in the mass market. lagaan is a bollywood film with a difference - an indian-made film featuring 15 british actors. it is proving so popular in mainstream west end cinemas that crowds have had to be turned away this week. out of lagaan's 3 hour 42 minute running time, a full hour is devoted to a game of cricket, an intensely fought match between a group of british soldiers and the residents of bhuj in gujarat. the film relates the hardships of a village forced to pay tax to the british raj after years of drought. they appeal to the local british administrator, played by television actor paul blackthorne, and he agrees to waive the tax for three years if they can beat a british team at cricket - a game the villagers have never seen. the climax is the crucial match. the game of cricket has a strong modern feel to it with lots of sledging and intimidation by the british and even match fixing. the dialogue is in hindi and english and out of 29 prints of the film released here - some at mainstream cinemas such as the odeon piccadilly - 22 are sub-titled. lagaan was shot in bhuj six months before the region was devastated by an earthquake. proceeds from the exhibition will go to the area's earthquake fund. the film has become the first commercial hindi film to get what one critic described as the "nearest thing to a full mainstream release that any bollywood picture has yet achieved" and has come to london after raking in an estimated 300,000 pound in other parts of britain. its promoters expect it to join the big league of such mandarin chinese hits as crouching tiger hidden dragon in persuading a mainstream audience to pay to see a sub-titled asian film. favourable reviews in leading british dailies, the guardian and the daily telegraph and on radio 4, the most cerebral of bbc's radio channels.