The government's response is awaited, following which serious negotiations are expected to begin to select the first Hindi titles of the giant Sony Corp-owned film MNC with operations in 67 countries.

Columbia Tristar Films of India managing director Uday Singh said that the application was pending at the FIPB stage, and the company attached great value to its Indian business.

"Our strategy is to forge relationships with talent around the world," said Singh. "Hindi movies would, if and when we get into them, give us a lot more visibility. Besides, local films can never be replaced," he added.

Hollywood has tasted considerable success with some dubbed Hindi versions of its classic English films. Jurassic Park remains the greatest such success, and some feel theHindi Titanic is set to emulate its achievements.

"This is a welcome move for the domestic film industry if it goes through finally," said film expert Komal Nahata, reacting to the possibilities of Columbia Tristar getting into Hindi movies. "These are very professional production houses, and some of the domestic practices will have to change dramatically if Indian film-makers are to compete with them," he added.

"Through their dubbing experiences, they would have realised that very different things do not click. Therefore, they can be expected to conform somewhat to traditional Indian film mores," said Nahata, when asked whether he expected dramatic changes in content. "There were dubbed versions like Speed or Dr Doolittle which have achieved only moderate success when compared with their Hollywood originals. Therefore, this would have convinced the studios that they must be very careful in not being too radical with their fare."

However, he expects the style of film-making itself to change quiteradically, with more discipline and greater professionalism being the order of the day once multinational studios take up the baton. "In Indian industry, for example, nothing is in writing; its all by word of mouth. The dates heroes give, the shooting contracts, everything is arbitrary, and subject to whims."

Nahata mentioned the ABCL Corp experiment, woven around the once-magic image of Amitabh Bachhan, one of the most successful Indian film heroes ever, as the harbinger of professionalisation, which did not go right. "They tried, but nothing worked, and in the end they have had, in some ways, to forget their earlier professionalism," said Nahata.