Shyam Bhatia in London

A Pakistani film that employs Bollywood choreographer Saroj Khan and playback singers Sonu Nigam, Kumar Sanu and Kavita Krishnamurthy is drawing appreciative crowds at leading UK cinemas, including the prestigious Warner Village at London's Leicester Square.

Produced by Pakistani filmmakers in Lahore at $1 million, the film highlights women with bare midriffs, elaborate makeup and form-hugging clothes. It was shot on location in Barcelona, Geneva and Karachi.

The December 12 screening of Yeh Dil Apka Huwa (This Heart Belongs To You) was the debut performance in Britain of a Lollywood production, which poses a potential challenge to more established Bollywood films based across the border in India.

Its actor-director Javed Sheikh has acted in 125 films and is described as the Dilip Kumar of Pakistani cinema. Other members of the cast include Moammar Rana, actresses Sana and Veena Malik and Sheikh's brother Salim.

The bull fighting sequences are a first for popular South Asian cinema, but the film has an endless repertoire of songs and dances as well as ample tactile contact between the male and female leads, which Islamic activists in Pakistan and elsewhere may find provocative.

Islamists emerged as a significant political force in Pakistan's recently concluded general elections. Until 15 months ago, Pakistan as the patron of Taliban fundamentalists in neighbouring Afghanistan who insisted on veiled women and issued edicts banning music and any depiction of the human form.

The love triangle plot in which two men fall in love with the same girl is far from original. But what will have Indian directors looking over their shoulders are the technical advances in sound, music and presentation that mark the coming of age of Lollywood.

Javed Sheikh said at a press briefing in London on Thursday that higher technical standards had been achieved by processing the film in Bangkok and Barcelona. "We used to have a lot of problems with equipment in Pakistan," he explained. "This time, we have overcome our technical problems and this film is technically sound.

Sheikh described the three-and-a-half hour production, which has been playing to packed houses in Pakistan, as a "neat, clean, family film. Even the censors said, 'This is the pride of Pakistan.' "

Asked how he compared his efforts with the average Bollywood blockbuster, Sheikh replied, "Indian films are very big, and they are doing a very good job. Many of their films are of international standard. We can't yet reach their standard. But when you see this film, you will see how far we have come."

Although Sheikh has employed three Indian singers and one of Bollywood's best known choreographers for his current film, he was cautious about more extensive collaboration between Pakistani and Indian filmmakers because of political tensions between the two countries.

"If Pakistan and India have a cultural pact, it will be easier to work together," he said. "They can come to us and we to them. The audience is the same, it should happen. If there could be a cultural pact both countries would benefit. We could learn a lot from them, we have no acting schools as such."

He added he was proud that the Pakistani film industry had broken new ground by filming in Barcelona. "Raj Kapoor and Yash Chopra discovered Switzerland for Bollywood. I discovered Spain for Lollywood."