Imagine the Amitabh Bachchan baritone in Bhojpuri!

That seems to be the purpose of enterprising Bihari producers Baldev and Kamal who have got together to dub and release one of Bachchan's biggest blockbuster, "Namak Halaal", in Bhojpuri.

The dubbed Bhojpuri version is entitled "Babua Khiladi Dadua Anari" - the babua being Bachchan and the dadua being the late Om Prakash who plays his grandfather.

The 1981 hit, directed by Prakash Mehra, has been released in two small centres of Bihar.

Film distributor Ajay Chowdhary says: "We've released 'Babua Khiladi Dadua Anari' in only two towns - Hajipur and Begusarai. We'll put it out in other centres, according to how the film performs."

He admits this is an attempt to ride the sympathy wave that has swept across the nation after Bachchan's hospitalization for an abdominal problem.

"We've competition from Bachchan-ji's new film 'Ek Ajnabee'. We don't know how much of the Bhojpuri audience wants to watch him speak in Bhojpuri. But the response so far is encouraging."

The film has been professionally dubbed in Mumbai by various artistes.

Interestingly all the songs of "Namak Halaal", including Bachchan's evergreen "Pag ghunghroo" and two Parveen Babi's sizzler "Jawaani jaan-e-man" and "Raat baki", have been re-recorded in Bhojpuri.

Plans are afoot to dub other Hindi films in Bhojpuri to meet the rapidly rising demand for films in that language in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.