Indian film is more than just Bollywood song and dance and at a movie festival beginning in Auckland this week, the gritty and exciting side of the world's biggest film industry is on show.
This year's Indian Film Festival in Auckland will open tomorrow with former Miss India, actor/producer Juhi Chawla and director Onirban Dhar presenting I Am, a controversial film looking at homosexuality, prostitution and child abuse.
Chawla is co-owner of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 side, the Kolkata Knight Riders.
The festival, staged from March 24 to April 3 at Hoyts Sylvia Park, features 30 films, most of them devoid of Bollywood antics.
Among the big shows is celebrated Peepli Live, a film that last year caused a sensation in India for the way it highlighted ruthless 24-hour a day news television, and political corruption.
It also deals with farmer suicide, a sensitive issue in India with farmers killing themselves when in debt.
It revolves around poor farmer Natha in Peepli village who is about to lose his land over debts. He realises that the government pays a grant to families of farmers who commit suicide so decides he should do that.
A local television stringer hears his decision and within hours India's news channels are live at the farm waiting for him to kill himself.
Guzaarish features India's top female lead, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, tells the story of a magician left paralysed after a near fatal accident.
Back in New Zealand is I Am Khan, starting Shahrukh Khan (co owner with Chawla of the Knight Riders), playing a Muslim man with Asperger's Syndrome who moves from India to San Francisco.
One of the top films on show is No One Killed Jessica, a film inspired by the tragic true-story of Jessica Lall, a model who was shot to death in a New Delhi restaurant in 1999 by the son of an influential politician.
The film follows the subsequent court case which saw justice swept aside by money and political influence and the accused walk free. The long legal battle that followed gripped an entire nation and touched the lives of many.
Two of Bollywood's biggest female stars come together - Vidya Balan as Jessica's sister Sabrina and Rani Mukerji as Meera, a TV reporter.
Other films in the festival include Raajneeti, a story on Indian politics and Tere Bin Laden which is a comedy about creating fake Osama Bin Laden tapes.
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