A fashion show featuring three top models falls apart in Mumbai. Hundreds of stolen diamonds meant to be smuggled abroad fall in the hands of the paparazzi and celebrities.

The gangsters, who were to make millions from the stolen gems, are livid. They want the diamonds back -- and they hold the three models responsible for the huge loss.

"I want my babies back," snarls the gangster honcho Bade Mia.

"The fashion world meets the underworld and all hell breaks loose to make Boom," says the tagline of writer-director Kaizad Gustad's English language film (which will also have quite a bit of Hindi dialogue).

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"I wanted to make a film about two very different worlds, fashion and crime, colliding," he had said in an interview. The film will also challenge the prevailing notion that beautiful models have little more to them than their physique.

It took Gustad, who studied filmmaking at New York University, more than four years to mount Boom, which features Amitabh Bachchan as Bade Mia, the most notorious gangster in India. His sidekicks are Medium Mia (Gulshan Grover) and Chhote Mia (Jackie Shroff).

Gustad, 35, whose first film made in India, Bombay Boys, was a surprise hit in urban centres in the country five years ago, says Boom is different from the desi gangster films that go over the top with their melodrama. It takes many conventions of typical desi gangster films and gives them vigorous twists.

The Bade Mia here has to have his perversions, but it won't be someone with thundering thighs and an overdeveloped bosom who has to satisfy his lust. This Bade Mia is in love with Hollywood fantasies.

The movie could have been shot much earlier, according to reports in India, had its original producers not backed out. Then Ayesha Shroff, who liked the concept and Gustad's vision and a promise of international recognition, stepped in.

The film, which has been shot extensively in Dubai, features leading models such as Madhu Sapre, New York-based Padma Lakshmi, and England-born Katrina Kaif. It also has Anu Gaekwad, the first Indian Miss Universe runner-up.

Seema Biswas (Bandit Queen, Khamoshi) plays an enigmatic maid who works for top models. While she is complaining about her low pay, you may wonder if she isn't up to some smart operation of her own.

Zeenat Aman plays Alice, who is capable of running the underground smuggling operation by herself, yet dances to the tune of male bosses. The actress, who has played Amitabh's love interest in several films, including Don, returns to the big screen after about 15 years.

The gangsters have interesting names: Chhote Mia is actually Abdul Wahab Barkatali Ali Sabunchi, also known as 50/50. So what is special about him? Age 43, one wife, six children and 11 mistresses, Gustad reveals. "You must count your fingers after shaking hands with him," he warns.

Saleem Ahmad, Medium Mia, is also known as Cut-Price Saleem Suiting Shirting. He lost his family in the Mumbai riots. As they say in the underworld, he has the ability to cut a man into pieces without making a tear in the man's suiting-shirting.

Bade Mia is not only the most ruthless and colourful gangster in the film, he also sets in motion its frantic and suspenseful proceedings. Despite being immersed in a cut-throat business, he must make time for his fantasies. And the most important of them is to see Bo Derek recreate her famous scene from the movie 10.

Over two decades have passed since that landmark Blake Edwards film, which also starred Julie Andrews and the late Dudley Moore, was released. It has also gained a reputation for being one of the most sensuous films of all time.

Bo Derek, who makes a cameo in Boom, recaptures the fabled scene for Bade Mia, but in a gorgeous sari.

Ask Gustad what kind of audience he has in mind for Boom, and he will most probably shrug his shoulders. He is convinced that his wild, wacky, funny film has wide appeal.

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