The final auditions for an upcoming Bollywood film was held in Tappoo City in Suva yesterday.

Renowned playwright and film maker Larry Thomas says while searching for local talent is great, it’s also about gaining more knowledge.

“When you have a production team coming over they bring experience; the directors, producers, the choreographers and they are going to also share this knowledge with locals here and this is building capacity for the locals here. Its an opportunity to be part of a big industry which is Bollywood. And when the film is completed we have people who have trained and we hope this opportunity will continue from Bollywood as well as Hollywood.”

Fiji WOW – a group from Vunato in Lautoka – traveled all the way to Suva, hoping for a spot in the film.

Osea Martin a member of the group said they spent two weeks practicing.

“We did a modern and pacific plus Indian Bollywood remix dance and we always performing at festivals and functions that we have.”

Digicel Commercial Director Pacific Awaiz Malik says the auditions have been great.

“It was actually beyond our expectations. The talent which we have seen in the west last week and talent which we have seen or have come across thus far we feel that it is at least at par; people have a lot of gifted talent.”

This sort of talent search won’t be a one off affair seeing the amount of talent in Fiji.

“Fiji has got a lot of talent but the only thing that they need is a platform to offer them the chance to go to the next level and Digicel in coordination with Pacific Productions have joined hands to take the local industry to the next level and making it better.”

A final list of names will be selected from the hundreds of people who have auditioned.

Come June the production team from India will be in Fiji and they will decide the final fifty, lucky enough to appear on the big screen.