Salman hopes Marigold will open Hollywood doors -Current Affairs

MUMBAI: Each day, they gather outside the sprawling Mumbai home - men and women, boys and girls - hoping to catch a glimpse of Salman Khan, who for two decades has remained one of Bollywood's biggest box-office draws.

The secret of his success, he says, is simple: "I do comedy, I get beaten up, I do romance - I don't have a set image."

It's a winning non-formula Khan is hoping to take overseas with the release yesterday of his latest project Marigold, which co-stars Ali Larter of the US television drama Heroes and was made by little-known American director Willard Carroll.

The movie is opening across India and in 70 theatres in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. If it does well, there are plans for a wider American release in September.

"Basically, (Indians) like to watch films with music, a little bit of comedy, action, emotion," Khan said in a recent interview. "We don't do one genre of film. In our movies we have singing and dancing, no matter how serious it is and then we go back into comedy and action."

Marigold is a romantic comedy that centres on a small-time American actress, played by Larter, stranded in India after her low-budget Hollywood film falls through.

She gets a role in a Bollywood film to pay her way home, but she can't dance, a prerequisite for any aspiring actress in India.

Khan plays a choreographer who helps her ace tricky Bollywood gyrations and, of course, love lurks around the corner.

While the movie is in English, seven songs are in Hindi because Bollywood soundtracks are often as popular as the movie.

Khan hopes his South Asian fans abroad will take their friends to see the movie. "If you want to see India and the Taj Mahal and the film industry that's called Bollywood, this is the best film to watch if you want to get to know India."

Carroll said he saw a Khan movie while on vacation in India four years ago and decided he wanted to make a Bollywood film with the actor as the lead.

"I've always loved melodrama and musicals," said Carroll, whose best-known Hollywood movie was 1998's Playing by Heart, a comedy starring Sean Connery and Angelina Jolie. "Most Americans have never seen a Bollywood movie and this is their window through the actress' eyes."

"He's so lovable. A soft face, a tough body and a great sense of humour - he has it all. He's the best," said Rakhi Khubchandani, a 31-year-old woman who was camped outside the star's home on a recent afternoon.

Soon enough, Khan was out on his balcony, waving at Khubchandani and the handful of other fans suffering through the heat for a glimpse of the star.