US producer Zachary "Zack" Coffin is planning to make a film on the world's worst industrial disaster in a package that will wrap "reality and truth" and still be entertaining.

Coffin announced his film on the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, which has killed an estimated 20,000 people since 1984, at the 35th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here.

"This is a story that needs to get across to a housewife in Houston, Texas, whose husband lost his job while working for Enron. It's not just about the gas tragedy and death, but about people getting very angry," Coffin told IANS.

The 34-year-old expert on corporate transparency says the Bhopal disaster could be seen as the "first great case of globalisation (of a negative kind)".

The film, starring Aishwarya Rai, would be a "a murder mystery inspired by true events", set mostly in present day US with flashbacks to Bhopal.

It's the story of Jasmine Singh, an Indian-American born in Bhopal but raised in Beverly Hills, who goes in search of her father, a plant manager on the night of the disaster.

Coffin sees a big challenge in Indian films successfully reinventing themselves in a way that they become genuinely 'cross over' and appeal to audiences in dominant Western markets too.

"Indian film has the opportunity to be universal, but gets weighed down in certain formats. For instance, the need to keep five songs in each film," he said.

Coffin sees Bhopal as a case of "one human failure after another".

In his view, both Hollywood and Bollywood tend to be "escapist" in their diverse ways. "In Bollywood, it could be song, dance and a visit to the Alps. In Hollywood, it's gadgets, hi-tech, violence, and a different degree of sex," he added.