Indian Dream

By Avie Luthra 1 x 60' for BBC2

Developed for the Dennis Potter award with Red Production Company and written by Avie Luthra. Indian Dream is the story of Surender, an English teacher from a village in India who has come to England on holiday. Having never been to England before, Surender dreams of visiting the locations that gave inspiration to his favourite English writers - the Brontes, Wordsworth, Austen and Shakespeare. However, what should be the holiday of a lifetime is turned upside down when Surender loses his passport and is arrested at customs as an illegal immigrant. Frightened that he will end up spending a year in Britain when he only has two weeks left of his holiday, Surender escapes the detention centre and heads for Sedgton, 'most beautiful village in England, 1995'.

In Sedgton he discovers that the local amateur dramatic society are missing a 'Puck' for their performance of his favourite Shakespearean play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. By pretending to be Rajiv's cousin, Surender auditions and wins the part, thereby fulfilling a life long dream. But Sedgton is a village, which is not at all fond of immigrants - particularly the illegal kind.

Can Surender play Puck, woo the nicest girl in Indian Dream and keep his true identity a secret? Indian Dream is a comedy drama about identity, honesty and the lengths people will go to preserve their image of our 'green and pleasant land'.