The release of Amitabh Bachchan's latest movie, Kaante, looks likely to give the Bollywood film industry a much-needed boost.

The estimated box office takings for crime thriller Kaante have topped �1.9m in its first week on release in India, according to industry website Screen Daily.

Meanwhile overseas rights were snapped up by US company Film Club for $3m (�1.8m).

But Bollywood suffered a poor year in 2002, with the vast majority of films produced flopping dismally.

The Indian film industry is one of the most prolific in the world.

But in 2002, it produced 132 films in total, with 124 going largely unnoticed at the box office.

Bachchan hosts India's Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

But Kaante has garnered the same international plaudits as worldwide hit Devdas, which was one of the rare successes of last year, bringing in $8m (�4.9m).

Kaante is thought to be the first Bollywood films to be solely set in Los Angeles, using Indian stars but local US supporting cast and crew.

Bank heist

Written and directed by Sanjay Gupta, it uses both a Hindi and an English soundtrack, and was heralded as a pioneering effort to integrate the Indian film industry with the rest of the world.

It has taken nearly $1m (�622,000) at the US box office and has so far taken �268,507 in Britain, reports Screen Daily. It was released in the US, UK and India on 20 December.

The movie centres on six Indian criminals living in Los Angeles who plan a bank robbery, but things go wrong!

The film's star, 60-year-old Amitabh Bachchan, is considered one of Bollywood's leading actors and has appeared in nearly 150 movies.

He also hosts the hugely popular Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?