/> This has to be heard and seen to be believed. Last month when the American space shuttle Discovery STS—119 took off it had on board a DVD copy of a film that mission specialist Steve Swanson had taken along to view in outerspace.

The film was none other than Santosh Sivan's much talked-about colonial romance Before The Rains featuring Linus Roache and Nandita Das as the colonist and colonized clasped in a compulsive affair that rips the conservative Kerala community apart.

What could have prompted super-astronaut Steve Swanson to choose this unusual cross-cultural curry product for viewing thousands of kilometers away from earth?

"I haven't a clue, " laughs Santosh Sivan from Chennai. "But when I heard that Before The Rains had gone to outerspace on a US space shuttle I couldn't believe it. Then they sent me photographic evidence amd I was zapped. Is it an honour? I don't know. But I must be the only Indian filmmaker whose work has gone to outerspace."

Apparently after watching Before The Rains in space Steve Swanson was quite taken up with Nandita Das.

"It's a film about a relationship between a British planter and an Indian girl. But the resonances are far more universal. It isn't a typical Bollywood film with songs and dances. I think American and other international audiences find the Bollywood formula quite...spaced out!" puns Santosh Sivan who's now planning to release Before The Rains in India in May in spite of the multiplex strike.

"It's a niche film and in English. So I'm prepared for a contained attendance anyway, " explains Saivan. "Besides now that Before The Rains has gone to outerspace it's time to it came down to earth."