Dips Majithia, right, says Bollywood could bring jobs to the region

Dipesh (Dips) Majithia from Belgrave is appearing in Indian Babu which is now showing in cinemas.

The actor won the role after acting in an Indian television series which was partly shot in Leicester.

He is now hoping he can help a campaign to bring more film crews to the region.

Mr Majithia said: "By getting Bollywood people to Leicester or the East Midlands, what we are trying to do is employ a lot of dancers, a lot of local talent, a lot of extras and a lot of local equipment hirers.

Musical love story

"A Bollywood company, when they come here they come with a team of 50 people.

Dips Majithia was given the role after appearing on Asian television

"As soon as they land at Heathrow Airport the travel company gets work, the hotel gets work, the extras get work, the dancers get work and they get well paid."

Mr Majithia plays the son of a rich business tycoon in Indian Babu, a musical love story shot in England and India.

His comments follow a fact-finding mission by the East Midlands Development Agency (Emda) to learn more about the industry's needs for foreign shoots.

After that trip, Emda's representative Jaideep Mukherjee said the region could become the new location for a spate of Bollywood film productions and Asian television dramas.

He said: "I'm looking to field a lot of queries over the next few months, as summer seems to be the favourable time of the year for Indian productions in the UK.

"The East Midlands is beginning to be recognised as an emerging location, and support for that comes from the fact that two feature films and part of a TV serial have been shot here in the past two years and are about to be released. "