BRADFORD is playing a starring role in a new Bollywood blockbuster.

Welcome to Karachi, described as a comedy drama, is due for release in India on May 21 - and Bradford's City of Film team is discussing the possibility of a UK premiere here in Bradford.

Last summer the City of Film team was contacted by a production company asking to source locations for a Bollywood film. The team had worked with the company in 2013 on a Hindi horror movie which saw the streets of Little Germany double as 1920s London.

"This new request was very different as they were looking for locations to double for Karachi in Pakistan," said Bradford City of Film director David Wilson.

"We sent photographs and a short film of locations including street scenes, markets, mosques and official-looking buildings to Mumbai. The producer, Vashu Bhagnani, arranged to spend a day in Bradford."

Mr Wilson added: "We get enquiries for all kinds of productions but it's quite rare for a film's producer to hop on a plane, fly half way around the world and arrange to meet you."

Mr Bhagnani was taken around locations in the city and filming went ahead last autumn at places including Little Germany, Bombay Stores, City Hall and Drummonds Mill.

Zulfi Karim, director of the World Curry Festival which has its headquarters at Drummonds Mill, supported the filming.

"It was a great experience having the production at the mill. They were a pretty self sufficient bunch and worked very long hours," he said.

"We'd like to see more film and TV productions take advantage of the massive space available at Drummonds Mill."

Welcome to Karachi is about two Indian friends, played by Arshad Warsi and Jackky Bhagnani, who plan to go to America. In a bid to avoid the hassle of visas they attempt to travel by boat but their journey is thwarted by a storm and they end up in Karachi with no passports, money or official papers.

Things get worse when the pair are interrogated by terrorist outfits in Pakistan as well as what appears to be the CIA.

Filming also took place at quarry sites in North Yorkshire, and some of the region's famous peaks, which appear in the film as mountains in Afghanistan.

These locations were sourced by the City of Film team, along with several local people recruited as extras for crowd scenes.