Rising Hollywood star Jason Lewis will play the lead role in "My Bollywood Bride", a comedy about a star-crossed lover who pursues his love - an Indian actress - to Mumbai.

The movie jointly produced by Bollywood star Kashmira Shah, her husband Brad Listermann and US-based IT businessman Vivek Wadhwa will be edited by Michael Trent.

Trent is one of Steven Spielberg's top editors who has worked for movies like "Saving Private Ryan", "Minority Report", "Catch Me If You Can" and "The Terminal".

Hollywood legend Michael Kahn has been Trent's mentor. Trent, who was looking to break out on his own and follow in Kahn's footsteps, regarded this film as his big opportunity.

"Trent felt he could relate to our film's hero Alex, the American writer who travels to Mumbai in search of his lost love," tells Wadhwa.

Trent himself was an Englishman who many years ago travelled to the US in search of his love. He thought his experience of landing in the US was almost as traumatic as Alex's landing in Mumbai.

"The latest cuts of the film have been getting rave reviews from all the Hollywood people who have seen it," adds Wadhwa.

"My Bollywood Bride" has been promoted at the American Film Market (AFM), the world's largest motion-picture trade event held in Santa Monica, California, every November in which major players from film and TV industries scout for content.

Deals worth over $500 million are typically transacted at the AFM with more than 7,000 participants attending it from all over the world.

The initial response for the movie from buyers was hardly encouraging - the first day hardly got them any buyers! For day two, they decided that some guerrilla marketing was required.

So, first they did a two-page ad in Variety magazine. Next they had an emergency meeting with their marketing partner Frequency Entertainment and decided to hire three beautiful models to dress like the film's heroine, Reena, in elegant black saris with matching jewellery and makeup and to have them mingle with the crowds.

If they met a distributor, they would innocently ask for his help in finding Alex, and then ask him to look for him in their sales suite.

The plan came together like the plot of a Bollywood film. The crowds started streaming into their suite and for much of the next few days, there was standing room only.

"By the end we'd already sold a number of territories from as far away as Indonesia and the Middle East. And dozens of other distributors had asked for follow-up meetings. Some, from major territories like France, had even made substantial offers," said Wadhwa.