Bollywood comes to Germany

The Agnes church is one of Cologne's biggest sacred buildings. Its gothic steeple rises up to the sky. Surrounded by cramped apartment buildings and busy streets, the landmark church is an oasis of calmness -- or rather it usually is. This week, different sounds have been emanating from it.

Dancing in a church

Disco music drones out of big loudspeakers set up in the nave and the sound of screeching teenagers. They are cheering for a young man with an unbuttoned shirt and a red baseball cap standing on the stage -- he is Himesh Reshamiyya, one of India's most celebrated pop singers. He plays the lead in the Bollywood film currently being shot in Germany. "Aap Ka Suroor" was named after one of his albums.

One of the film's locations is the Agnes church. The producers want to simulate a night-time concert in the huge nave and have therefore covered the windows and walls with black drapery. In a place where believers usually kneel down to pray, there are now 50 professional dancers in silver sequined dresses shaking their hips. 2,000 extras were planned to play the cheering crowd, but only a few hundred came in the end.

Vinod is one of them. He was born in India but lives in Germany. And he is a big fan of Reshamiyya. For the 16-year-old, the shoot is a special chance to see his star at close range. "I'm standing in the fourth row," he says with bright eyes during a short break. "It's cool and I'm having a lot of fun!"

Controversal reactions

But having fun and dancing in a church doesn't only meet with positive reactions. Cologne's archbishop Joachim Meissner tried to stop the shoot, but the church's pastor had already signed the contract with the production company.

Many parishioners are angry about the production. An elderly woman shakes her head as she enters the church this morning. "I wanted to pray, to light a candle," she says. Now she has to leave the church. Until Sunday only the film team will be allowed to use the main nave. Others are also displeased about the situation. They don't understand why the shoot has to take place in a building they consider holy.

"This is not even a high-quality production, not an ambitious film which one could possibly stand being shot in a church," complains one man. "I have talked to several people in the area and their enthusiasm is also limited. People think the church is selling itself."

Closed off film location

The exact sum which the film company paid to the church is not clear. Because of the controversy and for fear of jeopardising the shoot, Reshamiyya and the film company decided to cancel all interviews and closed off the church to the public.

Hence, not much information about the film's plot was made available. Only that it will partly be about Reshamiyya's life and that it will be a typical Bollywood film -- which means a lot of music, dance, love and the inevitable happy end. The film will hit India's screens in July.