The Player

Movies can be a powerful tool to expose ignorance and prejudice about AIDS. In 1993, American superstar Tom Hanks won an Oscar for his moving portrayal of a gay lawyer dying of AIDS in the hit film Philadelphia . It helped bring the deadly disease out of the closet, and removed some of the stigma attached to actors playing AIDS victims. Now, a new AIDS drama has premiered. It's modest, not destined for the big screen, and is produced by Bollywood, not Hollywood. But among its target audience of South Asians in Britain, it's breaking social taboos.

The force...