In a movie-mad country where people are shy about discussing sex, a Bollywood film-maker hopes to shed some light on India's potentially disastrous HIV problem.
While the virus, which is mainly spread through sex in India, has already infected one out of every 215 people, the subject has rarely been addressed in Indian cinema.
But some of India's top stars now feature in Bollywood's first high-profile take on HIV/AIDS, which attempts to tackle the stigma attached to the disease in a society where fears of catching the ailment by merely touching hands still exist.
With shades of "Philadelphia", in which Hollywood's Tom Hanks plays a lawyer who wins a court case after losing his job because he is HIV-positive, "Phir Milenge" ("Let's Meet Again") revolves around a woman with the virus fighting a legal battle against an advertising firm.
"I have seen people infected with the virus ostracised in society. The issue is, if you are HIV-positive, are you bad? And if tested negative, does that make you a saint?" asked director Revathy Menon.
"The film is about letting (HIV-positive) people live their lives," she said.
Played by well-known actress Shilpa Shetty, the woman fights the case with the help of a lawyer played by leading actor Abhishek Bachchan, and falls in love with a character played by another of Bollywood's top stars, Salman Khan.
India's HIV problem has assumed serious proportions despite health programmes to halt its spread. Over the years, HIV/AIDS has moved beyond traditionally high-risk groups such as prostitutes, drug users and homosexuals.
India's HIV-positive population of at least 5.1 million is second only to South Africa's, with the virus spreading into families, infecting mothers and children. Because there is a widespread lack of awareness about the illness, many do not even know when they are infected.
According to the US Central Intelligence Agency, the number of Indians with HIV could quadruple by 2010.
India's hugely popular song-and-dance movies, known to the world as Bollywood films because many are produced in Bombay, have focused before on medical issues such as tuberculosis and cancer, but few have turned out to be blockbusters.
With "Phir Milenge", set for world-wide release on August 27, the film-maker hopes to make a contribution towards raising awareness about HIV, especially in remote areas of the country.
"When viewers see their favourite stars talking about the ailment, it can have a huge impact on them," Sunil Sahjwani from Percept Picture Company, the film's producer, told Reuters.
In what the director describes as a romantic movie, Menon said she has also tried to portray the emotional turmoil of victims of HIV/AIDS and other people's attitudes to the disease.
"The stigma is there because the disease is usually related to sex outside marriage. This is not accepted in India," said I.S. Gilada, a doctor who has treated AIDS patients for two decades.
Worst affected have been employees of hotels, factories, and textile firms who have lost jobs after testing positive. They are either forced to quit, given early retirement or declared unfit to work, activists say.
In a recent case, a young HIV-positive widow appealed in court for "compassionate employment" after the company her husband worked for refused to give her the job. A blower in a glass factory, reinstated by court order last year, says he has been isolated by colleagues and his employer refused to give him an annual raise.
Veena Johari from Lawyers Collective, a firm with a separate division for people with HIV/AIDS, says he has filed for a recovery of back wages.
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