ONE of the biggest movie blockbusters to hit our screens this week was not only written and directed by home-grown talent but was also partly filmed in Ealing.

Bride and Prejudice by director Gurindher Chadha, of Marlow Road, Southall, is set to be one of the biggest hits this year and as with her previous hit Bend It Like Beckham, part of it has been filmed in the borough.

Described as Bollywood meets Hollywood, Chadha's take on Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice promises to be a British Bollywood movie with the reigning queen of the sub-continent Aishwarya Rai cast in her first ever all-English-speaking role.

However, this is not Chadha's first attempt at making a Bollywood film.

She told the Times: "In 1996 I had been approached by a rather large Bollywood star and producer to make a Bollywood film with him. And even though we had written the script, it turned out what the producer wanted to shoot was not really related to the script and then various things happened but largely money ran out."

Husband and wife-team Gurindher Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges started writing the script for Bride and Prejudice whilst trying to raise the money for their previous film Bend It Like Beckham.

Chadha added: "In the decision to make Bride and Prejudice what really crystalised it for me was the fact that I didn't want to make a film that played to the pure typical Hindi film audience.

"There were enough people doing that and doing it really well and so for me, I had a different audience now with Bend It Like Beckham, a global audience and so I decided I would make a Bollywood-style British movie that would introduce the Indian film language to a global audience and open up, I hope, Indian films to audiences who were not familiar with them."

Chadha's re-working of the Austen classic is based in three countries India, America and England and the scenes for the UK were filmed at the world-renowned Ealing Studios and some parts of Southall.

Last week saw the unveiling of a new wax work at Madame Tussauds of Bollywood-star Aishwarya Rai, which will form part of a new interactive attraction where visitors can learn to dance Bollywood-style.

The attraction was inspired by the film Bride and Prejudice and features a song from the film and visitors are given the chance to play a Bollywood star.

Bride and Prejudice will be showing at cinemas across the UK from Friday, October 8th