London wants more of Shah Rukh

When someone from the Mayor of London's office decides to meet showbiz journalists in Mumbai, you know something's up. Mark Prescott from the Cultural Campaigns Department in the Mayor's office is lounging in a restaurant at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai. He is here to promote the upcoming India Now festival in London. The three-month season, which starts on July 17 will centre on London’s interaction with India with the highlight being the world premiere of Chak De India.

"Shah Rukh's coming. He's confirmed," Prescott says, visibly excited. The man who has been quite intrigued by the star confesses he's met Khan on one occasion. He says, "It was just a brief meeting, though. He was very charming, very articulate." Shah Rukh Khan will be one of the many cultural ambassadors who will be part of the festival. Khan, of course, is in elite company. Among other cultural ambassadors, Prescott especially mentions Upen Patel referring to his diasporic roots.

"There are people who still believe India is a land of snake charmers and elephants. India Now aims to introduce the country's new reality to Londoners," he says. The festival will thus focus on theatre, art, music and, of course, cinema. "And there's the India-England cricket series also on around the same time," Prescott points out gleefully. "So Rahul Dravid will also join us. He too is one of the ambassadors."

Ask why Dravid, and he searches for words. "We decided on Dravid because…" He starts off and fumbles before we cheekily complete the sentence, "… because he didn't take off his shirt at the Lords?"

The diplomat laughs off and moves on to talk about promoting London as a destination for Indian filmmakers. "We are looking at agreements with production houses here," he says. However even as Prescott may seem to suggest that Britain may not be in a mood to offer concessions like Malaysia or Bangkok, he is clear on one thing, "We would rather you shoot here than in Italy or Switzerland."

Prescott continues, "India Now will also promote new and upcoming talent from various fields. Even though we are propping up known faces like Manish Arora and Shah Rukh Khan, we will see a lot of newcomers too."

But ask him to name a few and the Cultural Campaigns man struggles with names. He picks up a special edition of Time Out and flips the pages. After a while, he says, "I will email you the list of names… first thing today."

We leave our visiting card. The email is yet to arrive.