Despite having no previous experience of the film industry, Karyn Watt and Karen Havranek have found themselves with an unlikely success on their hands.

Their 35-minute short film, Hanki Panki, has already been seen at the Cannes film festival and now it is now being screened in Edinburgh, to raise money for charity.

Watt says: "We have been going to India for years and we were having a big fat birthday.

"We thought we could have a party or we could do something more exotic."

The fact that one of their friends in India is actor and director Nilesh Malhotra, a veteran of India's film industry, turned what was originally going to be a "home movie" shot in the style of the Blair Witch Project into a Bollywood extravaganza.

The pair scripted a romantic comedy about two women from Scotland who go to India to enter a baking competition and end up marrying Maharajas.


Director Malhotra says: "I must tell you, they don't have experience but they have done a brilliant job in this movie.

"It is something different. If you see this movie you can get some Scottish humour, as well as Bollywood dancing, music. Everything you will find in this: romance, comedy - everything."

Watt, who works for a solicitor's firm, says: "It's a very popular genre at the moment. Everybody loves it, it's always a feelgood thing.

"It's a rollercoaster ride of excitement, disaster, dancing, singing. It's got everything that you want to cheer people up."

But the film is not just for fun.

Both Karens hoped it would raise money for their favourite charity - Lifeline Express - which helps doctors reach patients in remote parts of India.

Karen Havranek says: "It was actually a BBC documentary that I watched and just really took to it.

"When you go to India and see people on the streets and things, you just think 'what a wonderful cause it really is'. Because a lot of people have absolutely nothing over there."

Already they are close to the £4,000 they set out to raise and the film has taken them in directions they never imagined, such as Cannes.

Watt says: "Imagine your joy on April Fool's day to get a phone call to say you have been selected for the Cannes film festival.

"It was incredible. Absolutely unbelievable. But we had an absolute ball out there.

"We went out for five days and it was great to spread the word about our charity. A few of our friends and family came out, so it was great fun."

Havranek says: "I think the highlight for us was over breakfast we got to chat to John Hurt. He was delightful."

This week they will screen the film in Edinburgh for family and friends, many of whom star alongside them.

They are hoping to have a similar fundraising premiere in Mumbai in September and they are already thinking about a sequel.

"Who knows there might be more Hanki Panki. You can never have too much," says Watt.

bbc.com