Queen Mum's Bollywood makeover

Three years after her death, the Queen Mother could be brought back to life as an all-singing, all-dancing Bollywood star.

India has already adopted and adapted classic British hallmarks such as Jane Austen, fish and chips and Scotch whisky.

Now Akbar Khan, one of the country's leading film-makers, is planning a movie about the 'nation's favourite grandmother'.

He says he was invited to write the royal epic in a private letter from Philip Bonn, chairman of the British Red Cross Society's Queen Mother Memorial Fund. Mr Bonn wrote after seeing a private screening of Khan's latest musical saga, Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story.

Mr Khan said: 'He told me the film gave him a feel of Shakespearean drama.'

He is now working on a draft script about the Queen Mother's time as Britain's last Empress of India.

Publicity posters for Taj Mahal proclaim: 'The story of Shah Jahan: the love of his life, the life of his love and his monument to love - the Taj Mahal.'

Khan seems to be planning a similar approach to the Queen Mother but royal biographer Michael Thornton warned yesterday: 'Her life would make a wonderful film if only they tell the truth, rather than wrapping her in candy- floss which most accounts have done.'