Actress Eva Longoria (left) at the opening night ceremony of the 61st international film festival at Cannes on Wednesday. (AP)

Cannes, May 14: Jagmohan Mundhra was using his Indian mobile yesterday texting Aishwarya Rai in America, requesting her (and Abhishek) to put in a supportive appearance at the Cannes screening of his new movie on terrorism, Shoot on Sight, when news came through of the unfolding horror of the bomb blasts in Jaipur.

“Why they (the terrorists) would target Jaipur is beyond me,” muttered Mundhra.

The film’s producer, Aron Govil, a US-based industrialist who has put nearly £4 million (Rs 33 crore) of his own money into making the film, agreed: “I feel this is a topic which is very important — terrorism. Everyone can relate to it.”

Shoot on Sight is inspired by the events of July 7, 2005, in London when four young British suicide bombers blew themselves up on the transport system, causing much the sort of mayhem that occurred yesterday in Jaipur. There was an added twist to the tragedy shortly afterwards when Scotland Yard officers shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian electrician, in a dreadful case of mistaken identity.

“We make him Muslim (in the film),” said Govil. “It is a topical thing so I felt we should make this film.”

Mundhra cut in: “Jaipur shows terrorism has reached everywhere.”

The battle to get distribution for what is clearly a watchable, fast-paced thriller — it would have disgraced no one had it been included for competition at the 61st Cannes Film Festival — has left Govil with a simmering anger.

He has encountered almost a conspiracy to shoot down Shoot on Sight.

In India, most distributors did not want to offer reasonable percentages for a film they considered “English”, though it stars Naseeruddin Shah as a Muslim police commander at Scotland Yard and Om Puri as a mullah intent on preaching division and hatred.

In America and in the UK, Govil discovered distributors did not want to take on a film they felt was not traditional Bollywood with song-and-dance routines.

As a result, Govil, determined not to be defeated, is largely funding the film himself. This will make it possible for the movie to be seen in India. An estimated 150 copies will be released, mainly in the metros, but significantly half of them dubbed in Hindi. For the London area, 35 prints have been allocated.

“We will be releasing it in the UK, the US and India simultaneously on July 11,” he said. “This is being done directly through my company, Aron Govil Productions.”

Both he and Mundhra are relieved that “Naseeruddin Shah has confirmed he will attend the premieres in London on July 6 and in New York on July 8. The Indian premiere will be at the Oceanic Film Festival in Delhi on July 11 and Shoot on Sight will close the Stuttgart Film Festival on July 18. In Cannes, there was one market screening today; there will be another on May 16.”

As a businessman persuaded by fellow Los Angeles resident Mundhra to invest in a topical film about terrorism, Govil described the mountain he had to climb.

“Making a film is a job and then releasing it is another job. We had three deals in the markets in the UK, the US and India but with the deals I got I was not sure whether the film would get the proper release and justice. Some of the Indian companies don’t feel comfortable with an English language film.”

What is ironic is that the power of Bollywood, which has made the Indian diaspora justly proud of the achievements of “the world’s biggest film industry”, is now throttling the growth of an independent sector, according to Govil.

“It is the culture — the big studios control the space and it is very difficult for an independent producer to get into that space.”

As producer, he could have halved the budget by choosing not to film on locations in London. “London is an expensive place to shoot, actually, but because it is a story based in London, we had to shoot in London,” he pointed out.

Not surprisingly, Govil believes Mundhra has made an excellent film and is encouraged by the favourable reactions of those who have been shown Shoot on Sight privately and that of the audiences at the Dubai Film Festival last December.

But he makes a wider point about the consequences of depriving Indian audiences of films which do not conform to the Bollywood stereotype.

“If you take a child and teach it piano at age two, it will become a very good pianist, but if you let it watch just junk TV cartoons, it will only know that,” he argued. “Someone has to take it upon himself to show intelligent, well-balanced, meaningful films. It’s so sad people are just not into it.”