Britain’s National Health Service is now a part of a full length Bollywood film.
Fifty six year old senior Indian doctor Nikhil Kaushik a consultant ophthalmologist at Wrexham Maelor Hospital in North Wales has produced a Bollywood film called Bhavishya – The Future starring medical students from Manchester Medical School Akanksha Tyagi and Vikrant Gautam. Senior Indian actor Saeed Jaffrey also features in the cast along with real life doctors from Britain and India.
The film is a romantic tale and will release by the end of August.Kaushik spread news about wanting to cast people and soon consultant dermatologist Rob Lister, consultant gynaecologist Bid Kumar, and consultant anaesthetist Simon Underhill enlisted and many scenes were shot at Kaushik’s hospital itself with the candy floss scenes shot during the weekends when there wasn’t much pressure of work.
The India portion also features real doctors (Harish Bhalla and Renu Nigam) with New Delhi and Haridwar being the locations.The film is the British take on the Sanjay Dutt starrer Munnabhai MBBS with medical migration also being one of the subjects.
The film has been made at a cost of Rs 80 lakh or 100,000 pounds. The British Medical Journal has described the film as “Bollywood meets medical documentary meets health education promo than a standard feature film.”
