The long awaited "Mangal Pandey - The Rising" is being released with a record number of about 100 prints in Britain, the largest ever for any Hindi film released in the country, says producer Bobby Bedi.

Bedi is on a high with the excellent rating given to the film by the widely read British daily The Guardian and the standing ovation at the Locarno Film Festival.

"It is the first time an international film festival has opened with an Indian film and both Aamir Khan and me were overwhelmed by the standing ovation accorded to the film," Bollywood Trade quoted Bedi as saying about the Swiss experience.

He also denied reports about Asian journalists being boycotted from the pre-release screening of the film in Britain.

"The first screening was held a month ago and it was for the periodical magazines with a precondition that the reviews would only appear in August. The second screening was held for the electronic media and the third one was held for the daily papers. The UK Distributors Association had independently organised the media events and we had no say..." Bedi explained.