How Bollywood came to a Welsh hospital

Short abstract

Ophthalmologist's film explores medical migration

Perhaps it is the close-up view of an intracapsular cataract extraction just minutes into the film's opening scenes that gives the first clue that this is no ordinary romance; or perhaps it is the warning that “this film is representative of contemporary life... [but] any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is coincidental.” But for many in the UK medical world it will be the unexpected appearance on the big screen of strangely familiar faces and places that gives the game away.

For Bhavishya: The Future is more “Bollywood meets medical documentary meets health education promo” than a standard feature film. What it lacks in cinematic polish and performer professionalism it certainly makes up for in curiosity value.

The man behind it is Nikhil Kaushik, a consultant ophthalmologist at Wrexham Maelor Hospital in North Wales. He says: “I long debated that first shot [of the eye surgery]. More normally in films you'll see a surgeon throwing a bottle of blood around, but that's not what it's like. This gives more a sense of the reality of theatre.”

Kaushik, a graduate of Maulana Azad Medical College in Delhi, came to Britain in 1977 and has been in Wrexham since 1987. His interest in the arts found an early outlet in television and radio in India and has continued in this country mainly through poetry, prose, and a greater than usual enjoyment found in the preparation of teaching material.

He can thank the government's waiting list initiative for his debut as a script writer and film director, for it enabled him to find sufficient cash to plough into the Bhavishya project. It was either that or buy a yacht, he explains. And, he says, he is not into yachts.

Figure 1.

Medical realism: Manchester medical students Vikrant Gautam and Akansha Tyagi play the romantic leads

“I'd been watching how the medical profession is portrayed in films, and usually they're villains, killing people, or fighting with managers,” he adds, explaining Bhavishya's genesis. “The reality is a different one in which you are balancing many things. Today you might be operating on a seriously ill patient, and tomorrow you might have an interview 200 km down the road. It's an unsettled life that people lead. That's what I wanted to say; and gradually a story brewed up and so I put it down on paper.”

The resulting film explores issues concerning medical migration—east to west and vice versa. More specifically it tells of the developing love between two young medics: one a young doctor from Delhi who finds Britain's relatively better staffed and better managed hospitals, as well as the opportunities abroad for professional advancement, a lure too great to resist; the other a British Asian who, though shocked by the workload and work conditions faced by his counterparts in India, is also torn by the rights and wrongs of taking work abroad. In more than a nod towards Bollywood style, Bhavishya features lavish song and dance sequences.

It has been a labour of love for Kaushik too. Many of his weekends, evenings, and days off over the past year have been taken up with shooting—in Wrexham and its surrounds, including scenes inside Wrexham Maelor itself (“The management has been very supportive”), as well as in Delhi, Haridwar, and, thanks to a spot of filming during down time while he attended a conference, even Dubai.

Kaushik initially planned to employ actors for his film, he explains, but “I realised I could get a more realistic film if I cast from the profession itself.” Hence the romantic leads, Akansha Tyagi and Vikrant Gautam, are both students coming to the end of their third year at Manchester Medical School. He also put word out among colleagues at Wrexham Maelor that he was looking for interested amateurs and was pleasingly surprised by the interest. Among those subsequently cast were consultant dermatologist Rob Lister, consultant gynaecologist Bid Kumar, and consultant anaesthetist Simon Underhill. All “rose to the occasion,” he says.

Even the medical director of North East Wales NHS Trust, Peter Rutherford, has got in on the action, albeit playing himself, chairing a meeting.

The scenes in India too feature real doctors (Harish Bhalla and Renu Nigam), and that opening eye surgery scene was filmed in a Delhi operating theatre. (Other surgery images come from Kaushik's own teaching collection.)

A real coup was the casting of the veteran TV and film star Saeed Jaffrey. He appears as himself as the star guest in a party scene—a scene in which Kaushik, who plays a holy man, can also be spotted.

Kaushik says he hopes to find a general audience for his “off-beat” film. Showings in Wrexham, Cardiff, and Manchester are being planned, and he is currently looking for a distributor. The music is already on course to be released this summer, and a website is under construction (www.bhavishya-thefuture.com).

However, Kaushik, who has spent £100 000 on the film, says: “Making the money back is not an issue. I just wanted to do it.

“I'm passionate about surgery too,” he adds.