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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