McKidd starred with Ewan McGregor in low budget hit Trainspotting

The fact that the �2m film made �38m globally in its first year gave British film-makers a "big, false sense of bravado", he told Scotland on Sunday.

This led to high-profile flops such as Charlotte Gray, and the closure of Trainspotting producer FilmFour Ventures in 2002, McKidd said.

"Not surprisingly, the financiers lost confidence in the industry," he added.

'Hedonism'

McKidd's career was launched by his role as Tommy McKenzie in the hit 1996 film, but he said Trainspotting caused havoc in the industry it was thought to have rejuvenated.

"There was the whole Cool Britannia thing, and the Cool Caledonia thing as well, but the movie industry got a rude awakening after a few years of hedonism when Channel 4 films went bust," McKidd said.

The budget for a crap movie that nobody saw could have funded four smaller films and got first-time writers and directors on their feet Kevin McKidd

"[Financiers] thought: 'Wait a minute, these guys don't know what they're doing. They're just having a big party and getting pished and trying to look cool.'

"The budget for a crap movie that nobody saw could have funded four smaller films and got first-time writers and directors on their feet."

Since appearing in Trainspotting, the 30-year-old actor has starred in films such as Topsy-Turvy, Dog Soldiers and Nicholas Nickleby.

Edinburgh Film Festival director Shane Danielsen responded by saying Trainspotting had been influential but that its impact on the industry had been "overestimated".

"I really enjoyed Trainspotting. It clearly did have an impact in inspiring other films but I think it would be reading too much into it to blame it for producers getting too far ahead of themselves," he told Scotland on Sunday.

"The Scottish industry and the British industry are not large ones and therefore do not make a lot of films, and what successes or failures they have are magnified."