Director Atul Malhotra says he was interested in making a movie with real British Asian characters which audiences could actually relate to.

He was speaking ahead of the release of the comedy Amar, Akbar and Tony. The movie, which premiered in London recently, follows the lives of a Sikh, a Muslim and an Irish Catholic.

Speaking to Asian Image, Atul said: “Personally I struggle with a lot of TV and cinema representation of western Asians in that I don’t tend to believe the characters or often the accents they speak with.

“So it was very important to me to make a film whereby the Asians seen on screen were believable and real, like people I meet in real life and not perpetuations of an ongoing screen stereotype.”

Inspired by the 1970s Bollywood comedy ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ – the English version sees three friends driven apart by circumstance. Amar 's(Rez Kempton) promising career gets derailed by a turn of events, Tony (Martin Delaney) is obsessed with winning over the Asian woman of his dreams, while Akbar (Sam Vincenti) is trying to manage business, love and friendship.

The cast includes Karen David, Laura Aikman (right), Amrita Acharia and Goldy Notay. It also features two familiar faces on British TV, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia. “They didn’t need to do this film but did so to show their support for independent film. And as a bonus they both decided to chuck in some hilarious performances too!"

“I really admire their work ethic and commitment to their craft and they brought some brilliant ideas to their characters.”

The original soundtrack for the film is composed by music producer Rishi Rich. “Rishi is an amazingly talented man. He was my dream choice to score the music for the film and I was delighted when he agreed to come on board."

“Making a film is a very collaborative thing and so we discussed a lot of ideas but Rishi has a great instinct and a brilliant sense of creating music to visuals.

“For example there’s a key scene in the film for which the editor and I tried endlessly to find the right kind of existing music to cut the scene to – I mean you name it , we tried it. Then I rang Rishi and asked him to take a look.

“And then he said my favourite Rishi words ‘ Ok , I’ve got an idea’ . He there and then created something which evolved into this beautiful haunting score and really adds great power to the scene.”

Atul adds, “I was thinking about locations even when I was writing the script.

“I was aware that we’d only be able to raise a limited amount of money and so I was always conscious of thinking of the kinds of locations I felt I could access. “Also to maximise production time and costs I tried to keep most locations within a 5 mile radius where possible.”

Amar, Akbar and Tony is out on April 16 at selected UK cinemas.