Bollywood Bound

More reality-TV than documentary, Bollywood Bound follows a handful of Indian-Canadian wannabe actors through their attempts to make it big in the booming Bombay film industry. Video-diary interview segments are intercut with one-camera handheld footage that accompanies the sometimes-naive hopefuls--most of whom seek stardom without knowing much about the craft of acting--to a city they discover is anything but glamorous, to participate in an audition process that is often akin to banging their heads against a wall. Of course, none of this is much different from L.A., where every cab driver and waitress is looking for his or her big break, and since the film fails to demonstrate if its subjects have any real talent, all there is to hold one's interest here are the cultural dichotomies these kids experience by feeling like immigrants in Canada and Western interlopers in Bombay (ironically, their knowledge of Indian culture is largely based on the often-cheesy fiction of the country's cinematic exports). Not a necessary purchase. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Blackwelder)