Bo Derek dons sari for Boom

Legendary Amitabh Bachchan and Hollywood's Bo Derek are set to ignite India's screens this month with the release of Boom.

Legendary film star Amitabh Bachchan and Hollywood's Bo Derek are set to ignite India's silver screens this month with the release of a new movie which will see the 1970s siren remake the scene which made her famous.

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Directed by Kaizad Gustad, Boom has Bachchan playing the role of a underworld don and Derek his fantasy woman.

The movie plays on the image that made Derek's name, with Bachchan's character obsessed by Derek and seeing her in his dreams emerging out of the sea just as she did in the movie Ten in 1979. But this time she won't be wearing a bikini.

"In Boom she will be emerging out of the water in a gorgeous gold sari and running towards Bachchan," said producer Ayesha Shroff. "I am grateful to her that she agreed to play this role."

The movie, which poses the gangster world against the cut-throat fashion industry, also stars models Katrina Kaif, Madhu Sapre and Padma Lakshmi, girlfriend of controversial writer Salman Rushdie.

Indian actors Gulshan Grover and Jackie Shroff also play key parts. Made at a cost of 200 million rupees (4.33 million dollars), Boom is set at a fashion show. The storyline revolves around the attempted theft of diamonds a model is to wear which goes wrong when the jewels fall on the catwalk during a commotion cooked up by three models.

This angers the don of the underworld, who wants the diamonds in his kitty -- leading to a clash between the fashion world and the underworld. "I am interested in the fashion industry and always wanted to make a film on this issue," said Gustad.

"Also, I always thought that gangsters are very fashionable in their personal life. So, I thought why not make a film making a combination of these two industries. So this is an experimental kind of film."

Kaizad, director of the popular Bombay Boys, is considered the father of the 'Hinglish' genre - films in which the dialogue is in both English and Hindi.Boom is one of the most-awaited movies of the year but it would perhaps never have been made except for Shroff's involvement.

Shroff said she became involved in the project when the director asked her husband Jackie to play one of the roles."Jackie liked the script and he agreed. But later on the producers who were supposed to produce the film fell out with Kaizad and I took the opportunity to produce the film. It is a mind-blowing script," she said.

"There is no message. The film is fun and everyone will love it. We have made this film up to international standards," said Ayesha Shroff. Boom was completed in 60 days and shot in Bombay, Sri Lanka and Dubai. "The film has no songs and it is a very non-Hindi film. I have a sophisticated cast and my script is superb," added Gustad.

"The three supermodels take on the underworld. They have the confidence to take these gangsters on. They have the beauty and brains. I have never done such a role," said Grover, who plays a gangster in the movie.

"Now I only hope that the film succeeds." We hope so too.