After hearing Anupama Chopra’s favorable of review of Love Sex aur Dhokha last Friday, I was really looking forward to catching it this week.   Imagine my surprise when I checked the Big Cinemas website for show times and saw it wasn’t showing here. In fact it wasn’t showing anywhere in the US.

When I contacted the folks at Phoenix Big Cinemas to ask when we’d be getting LSD and I was told “This film has not been picked up for overseas distribution.”

Moreover, they had contacted the producer in India, demonstrating interest in screening the film in North America, and did not get a response.

At this point, I was told, it does not seem likely that the film will get a US release.

Not content to leave it at that, I reached out to someone at Balaji Telefilms and I was told that they had held off sending the film over to the US until they saw how it would   – ahem – perform in India.

Now that the film is a hit, they’re weighing the merits of putting it on the festival circuit, or sending it over in another fortnight or so.

And then the man uttered the same old chestnut I’ve heard from other desi film distributors “US audiences only want to see films with big stars.”   Everyone seems to have convinced themselves that if it’s not a YRF flic, or have Aamir or ShahRukh in the lead, the film is doomed to fail on our shores.   I disagree.   I think with some good promos and creative marketing in the weeks preceding a release of a more indie type movie like LSD or Dev.D, folks would come out to see what’s on offer.

Let’s see what April brings”¦

UPDATE: heard back over the weekend that Love Sex aur Dhokha will not be coming to desi cinemas in the US now, because it’s going the festival route.