MUMBAI, Jan 14: India’s first Hindi film to be shot on location in China is released this week, marking a watershed in relations between the two countries that have often been marked by suspicion and even war.

“Chandni Chowk to China,” an action-comedy about a lowly Indian chef who is mistaken for the reincarnation of a fabled Chinese warrior, opens on Friday, and stars Akshay Kumar and Gordon Liu.

Kumar is one of Bollywood’s best-known action heroes, while Liu is a veteran of martial arts films as well as Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” series.

India producer Ramesh Sippy said the film, which is Hollywood studio Warner Brothers’ first Bollywood movie, was important because of the co-operation of China.

“It is a milestone because never in the history of Bollywood in my memory has any Hindi film been shot in China. The subject is fresh and exciting,” he said. But he was coy on whether it would help forge closer ties between the two neighbours, whose fortunes have been transformed by their recent economic growth.

“I am not the right person to comment on this issue because I am a filmmaker. All I would like to say is that it was great to shoot inside China and especially at the Great Wall of China,” he added.

“Moreover, we don’t have any message in the film. This is only an entertaining film.”

Sippy said that they encountered some problems filming in China -- but they were only logistical and linguistic.

“People were very good but it took us very long to begin the shooting of the film,” he explained.

“The bureaucracy in China took us almost a year to get all the necessary permissions.—AFP