At present there are three Bollywood movies at present that are being shot in West Bengal. It seems that all of sudden a section of Bollywood has shifted its attention from the exotic locations of foreign countries and the hills and backwaters of India to the plains of Bengal.

Agreed that this is not the first time movies have been shot there. Earlier, films like ‘Yuva', ‘Calcutta Mail' and ‘Parineeta' had a few locations from Kolkata and its outskirts.

But its three movies simultaneously that will be shot here. The first movie is ‘The last Lear' starring Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta and Arjun Rampal. This is the first English movie by director Rituparno Ghosh and is based on Utpal Dutt's Bengali novel 'Aajker Shahjahan'.

Joining the multi-starrer will be Moxie Entertainment Pvt. Ltd's second Hindi movie ‘BBD' casting Naseeruddin Shah, Jimmy Sheirgill, Kay Kay Menon, Sandhya Mridul, Rituparna Sengupta, Sonali Kulkarni, newcomer Shauvik and a host of well-known actors from Kolkata.

The film revolves around three young men - Binoy; a young model-actor from Mumbai, Badal; a hard-boiled honest Kolkata cop, and Dennis; an ex-rock musician junkie who migrated to the US. In the movie, they are thrown together owing to most unusual circumstances.

It goes on to tell about how these young men meet and how their lives get inextricably bound together.

Moxie's first Hindi movie produced by Joy B Ganguly; ‘Via Darjeeling' was also shot in Bengal. The cast of the movie include Kay Kay Menon, Sonali Kulkarni, Parveen Dabas, Simone Singh, Rajat Kapoor, Sandhya Mridul and Prroshant Narayanan.

The film is based on an age-old Bengali tradition of ‘adda', where friends get together in the rains and exchange stories and gossips over drinks and dinner.

Kolkata is famous for it two bridges, Victoria Memorial and its ancient buildings which have been used time and again in different films. This time, Bollywood seems to be having a special ‘bhalo basha' for Kolkata! - (SAMPURN)