Almost 4,500 miles separate Ealing from the heart of the Indian film industry in Bombay. But when Britain’s first official Bollywood acting school opens in the West London borough in September it will present itself as a short cut to superstardom in the world’s biggest film industry.

The project, to be announced today, is intended to improve the quality of the often hammy performances in Bollywood films and represents the next step in the growing connection between Britain and the Hindi film industry. Bollywood already recruits British talent, shoots frequently in British locations and relies on British box-office takings. Last year Shah Rukh Khan, its most popular star, held the premiere for his film Om Shanti Om in London. It went on to become the biggest grossing Bollywood film.

Ealing Institute of Media, where the school will be based, and Heathrow City Partnership, a not-for-profit company with responsibility for development in the area, are hoping that the promise of tuition from visiting Bollywood luminaries will help to fuel demand for places, despite the £2,000-a-month course fees.

Students will learn martial arts, yoga, dance, music and, if they need it, Hindi, as well as diction, improvisation and acting on camera. The idea, according to Anupam Kher, the school’s chairman, is “to breathe and smell only acting”.

The school is the first international spin-off from Actor Prepares, the academy founded by Kher in Bombay three years ago. He is a leading Bollywood character actor and veteran of more than 400 films, but is best known to British audiences from roles in Bend it Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice and ER.

He is hoping that the school will improve the acting in Indian films. Hammy performances have been almost as distinctive a part of Bollywood’s output as the song-and-dance routines and formulaic plots. But Kher, who trained at the National School of Drama in Delhi, believes that this is changing and that acting styles “have become one around the world”.

He told The Times: “The standard of acting in Indian films was mediocre generally but in the last few years audiences have become much more educated towards cinema because of the onslaught of satellite channels [showing Western films] and the arrival of multi-plexes in India. I am trying to kill off a certain style of clichéd Bollywood acting. It’s already dying so it is the right time to do this international school.”

Although the school is in one of Britain’s largest South Asian communities, it is intended to be open to all races. “There are Britishers who want to act in Bollywood films as well,” Kher said. “Of course, the Bollywood section of the course will be prominent but it won’t be the only thing we teach. There is a film tradition section, where we will show them great films from world cinema. Acting is becoming universal.”

About 60 students will be admitted in the first year and will pay £6,000 each for a three-month course.

In the past ten years Bollywood has built a global audience bigger than Hollywood’s by updating its traditional themes and shabby production values to appeal to Indians abroad and the middle classes at home. Estimates of its box-office turnover range as high as $5 billion (£2.5 billion), up from $1.5 billion in 2004. Last year Indian films sold 3.9 billion tickets in their home market alone.

Kishore Lulla, the chairman and “chief executive of Eros International, the studio behind Om Shanti Om, said that a British Bollywood acting school was overdue. “There will be huge demand among young South Asians and plenty of parts available to them playing South Asians who live abroad,” he said.

“Five or ten years ago their parents would have disapproved because they wanted their children to be doctors or engineers but now they are more relaxed about letting them act. Bollywood actors are making more money than those professions and the industry is more transparent and less disreputable than it was.”

How to fake it for a living

Method Supposed to be out of breath? Run up a staircase. Playing a down-and-out? Spend three weeks shivering on the Embankment. Your character is incontinent? Prepare to lose your friends

Non-method The legendary Michael Bryant was once sent to the zoo to study the behaviour of badgers for The Wind in the Willows. He announced on the first day of rehearsal that he’d concluded badgers behave much like Michael Bryant

Musical Must have good teeth as broad smile essential. Ability to shout over noise made by a pit orchestra and 2,000 uncomprehending foreign tourists also required.

Classical Earnest, committed, must look good in tights. Should be able to do the trademark RSC bow at curtain call – a wan smile of gratitude overlaying deep emotional fatigue etched across face while doing so

Bollywood Strong ankles and spatial awareness are essential, as you will mostly be performing interminable dance routines on flights of steps or while running through groves of trees. An ability to sing while your mouth is full of cascading orange blossom is an advantage

Farce Must be good with doors, air hostesses and soda siphons

Guide by Michael Simkins, actor and writer

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