Come February 22 and South Asian films will come of age as the luxurious art house in Manhattan's midtown, The Paris, plays host to the latest Mira Nair venture, Monsoon Wedding. Located directly across the Plaza Hotel on the border of Central Park, The Paris is also noted for its rich blue velvet walls and its affinity for playing foreign films.

Besides making its debut in swanky surroundings, it will be the first time that an Indian movie has been taken up for distribution by USA Films, one of the bigger houses in the country. Since its formation in the spring of 1999 USA Films, led by Chairman Scott Greenstein, has been responsible for a number of award-winning film releases, including the Oscar-winner Traffic.

"We are adopting a dual approach," says Jack Foley, president, distribution, USA Films. "We are releasing it as a foreign art film and simultaneously undertaking a major marketing campaign targeting the South Asian community," he says, and adds that ideally, breaking into the main circuit would have been desirable. "But we believe a dual launch would achieve this objective."

The New York launch will be followed by a release in Los Angeles on March 1 and in nine other US cities on March 8. If Monsoon Wedding fails to generate adequate excitement and gets stuck in the foreign film slot, it will be restricted to some 75 theatres. But if the movie clicks, the distributors will be looking at 175-200 theatres. "The US studios generally follow the principle of moving from large cities to smaller cities when dealing with small films so that word spreads and the viewership gains momentum," explains Gitesh Pandya, editor of BoxOfficeGuru.com. "They do not simultaneously release in all the theatres. The USA Films banner also shows that the American studios recognise that there is a market beyond just south Asians."

USA Films faced stiff competition from other players, including Fox and one of the group companies of the IFC-cofinanciers of the film. But it managed to hold its own and acquired Monsoon Wedding in May. Though everyone is tightlipped about the amount the movie was sold for, speculators peg it at above $1.5 million, the money expended by Nair to produce it.

Foley, though tightlipped, is hopeful that Monsoon Wedding would gross the moolah. Quipping that he paid "a lot of money", he adds: "There is a risk to what we are doing by taking the movie beyond the traditional market. It makes it that much riskier for us to come out with profits. But I believe it is a smart business move."

And they have reason to be smug. Having picked up the movie much before the accolades-the top prize at last year's Venice Film Festival and then the nomination for the Golden Globes 2002-started pouring in, they are sitting pretty with the growing popularity of the movie. According to Foley, they are looking at netting $5-6 million in the least. "I hope we achieve $10 million. It will also help Meera, whom we see as the brightest filmmaker from South Asia."

Nair, who first created waves with her film Salaam Bombay, is herself very excited at the initial response. "It was my dream to make a popular film that would run 'houseful' ... use similar vocabulary but different emotions." She now looks forward to exploiting the US market with her talent. "I am looking at some Hollywood offerings. This apart, I want to make a Bollywood movie with all the stars. This would be in two years, maybe."