/> Madhur Bhandarkar's latest film has come and gone. But its grass-root theme seems to have gripped the world of Indian academia.

The Maharaja Ranjit College for MBA in Indore has selected the film as a case study on that strange but thriving underground industry known as beggary.

Madhur was taken aback when he was informed about the selection. "We had done almost a year of rigorous research on beggars and their business industry in Mumbai for Traffic Signal. Not too many people know beggary is a 180 crore rupee industry in Mumbai!"

Now prompted by statistics and visuals presented by Traffic Signal other cities like Delhi and Kolkata have decided to search out vital statistics on beggary operations and how to control and streamline it better across the Indian cities.

Madhur is openly delighted by these turn of events. "Everyone in our film industry is busy writing off Traffic Signal as a flop. Why don't they check out the profit figures with our Maharashtra distributors Shringar Films?

The film was made at 4 crores which is a very minor fraction of the investments into Salaam-e-Ishq and Eklavya. Please compare the profit sheets of my film with these so-called biggies....In fact statistics prove there're two bonafide hits this year Guru and Traffic Signal."

Coming back to the unique honour given to the film by the management institute in Indore, Madhur explains, "I don't think any other film has been selected for a similar academic scrutiny. From what I understand, the Maharaja Ranjit Singh college will study Traffic Signal for information on the behaviour, activities and modus operandi of beggars.

When something so unusual happens I feel my hard work has paid off. Believe me, it wasn't easy making Traffic Signal. People scoffed that films about beggars and other poor sections of the society don't work. If that were the case Mother India and Lagaan wouldn't have worked. I'm not comparing my film to these all-time greats.

But when a film is done with sincerity and it reaches far beyond the goal of entertainment to become a source and reference point for academic discussion, then I think the industry should be generous enough to acknowledge the impact."