MUMBAI: She is the queen of the marquee for the moment with her riotous, colourful Bride & Prejudice being one of the most anticipated and written about films in recent times, and Gurinder Chadha is all keyed up.

The director of the hit Bend It Like Beckham says her audacious adaptation of the Jane Austen classic Pride & Prejudice will be a "rare, feel good Christmas" movie when it releases in the US at the end of the year.

The Indianised version of the popular classic has already been premiered in London and is being released in India Friday. The dubbed Hindi version is called Balle Balle - Amritsar to LA!

Chadha says her film, with its dances and songs, treads carefully on the line between the east and the west and is hoping that it would be seen differently by both audiences.

In an interview Chadha says Jane Austen's novel is about class differences, but by making the hero American and the heroine Indian she is subjecting the audience to a totally different world view in her film.

Q: You must be all keyed up?

A: Are you joking? Of course I am! The premiere in London on the Oct 4 went off swimmingly. Now there's the Indian premiere on the Oct 7. Then I head with the film to the US on Christmas day. They'll build up anticipation for the film in the US on the strength of its anticipated success in India and Britain. First, it'll release in New York and Los Angeles.

Christmas is not a great time to release all the big Hollywood movies. But it's perfect for Bride & Prejudice because it's so different from the other 'serious' Oscar-driven movies. This will be a rare feel-good Christmas movie... Just like Chicago .

Q: You mean the colour, the splash?

A: Yeah, all of that. But also there's a bit of a political bite in Bride & Prejudice . The fact that the hero Darcy (Martin Henderson) is American and thinks he's from the premiere country... he has that attitude. Lalita (Aishwarya Rai) represents modern India. Jane Austen's novel is about class differences. By making the hero in my life American and the heroine Indian, we're suddenly subjecting the audience to a totally different world-view.