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by james macgregor | September 28th, 2001 | contact: james@netribution.co.uk

Mystery Adds Scottish Spice To Bollywood Latest

A new Bollywood movie, shot mostly in Scotland, has sparked heated debate about the inspiration for one of the key characters. Could this flamboyant and supposedly fictitious lord, who enjoys country pursuits such as clay-pigeon shooting and falconry, be drawn from any of the Indian life peers currently in the Upper House? There is speculation that it could be Lord Bagri, chairman of the London Metal Exchange, but the suggestion is dismissed by others who say he is far too earnest a figure.

The film, Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat, translated as Love, Love and Love, tells the tale of three young men who fall for the same girl. She is Isha (Kirti Reddy), an Indian student who gets a scholarship to study in Scotland and stays with Lord Bharadwaj (played by Dilip Tahil), at his seat in a castle near Glasgow.

This stately mansion is in reality, Blairquhan Castle, Ayrshire, presently owned by James Hunter Blair, the 7th Baronet. Although excited by his foray into Bollywood, he confesses: "In the film they lived much more comfortably than I do and have many more servants and keepers."

A Self-Starter

When Isha first arrives, she is met by her guardian, resplendent in a red tartan jacket He brings with him a retinue of Scottish attendants and pipers who serenade her on the lawn. "I came here with £5," he tells her, recalling the comment often made by the Labour peer, Lord Paul, who arrived in the UK with £3 in his pocket and is now worth £330m. Apart from this phrase, there is no other resemblance to Lord Paul, whose dress sense is quite sober. The director, Rajeev Rai, insists the role is not modelled on anyone in particular. "Characters like these don't exist in real life," he says. "I wanted to give him some stature as he is a rich person."

Rai wanted to make his protagonist more than just another rich Asian businessman, because all Indian movies are full of such figures. In the film he is addressed as "your lordship", but the audience never really discovers the provenance of his title.

Perhaps the real inspiration is the Sikh lord, Sirdar Iqbal Singh, who lives at Little Castle, Lesmahagow, with his Swiss wife, Gertrude.

Lord Of The Manor

He may be known as Lord Singh but he can formally only call himself, Iqbal Singh, Lord of Butley Manor. His is a feudal title acquired for a modest sum in 1985. Since then, he has gone on to have a coat of arms inscribed with the motto, Akal Sahai (With God's Help), and has had his own tartan designed by Lochcarron of Galashiels. Not for him the ready-to-wear jackets courtesy of Scotch House, London, as donned by his alter ego in the film.

Iqbal Singh has been immortalised in a series of miniature paintings by the twin sisters, Amrit and Rabindra Kaur Singh, for the National Museums of Scotland, while Lord Bharadwaj has to borrow Hunter Blair's ancestors and surround himself with English servants to acquire the needed gravitas befitting a man of his station.

Iqbal Singh has integrated himself into Scottish culture and life. He opens village fetes, gives parties for the local community, and has also renamed an island off the west coast that he bought, Burns Island.

Aristocratic Style

"Your lordship" of the film is also a cultured man. He is completely at ease in his borrowed nineteenth-century castle where he enjoys spending time in his sumptuous library, while his butler hovers about pouring him a large measure of whisky. He has a roaring fire in the sitting room where he likes to get his feet up and smoke a pipe. When he dines, he uses fine Regency furniture, while Isha sleeps in a four-poster bed in the Red Room.

Many other Scottish locations also feature. Glasgow University is much in evidence and a song sequence uses the railway station in Edinburgh. Barony Hall at Strathclyde University is dressed up as the convocation hall at Bombay University.

Another location, however, bodes well for the future of flights into Scotland. In the film, Isha flies direct from Bombay to Prestwick international airport. However, as Edward Allison, aviation services manager at the airport, admits, no Far East carriers yet operate to Scotland.

"The producers used artistic licence," he says, but wonders hopefully if life can imitate art.


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