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Toronto has become one of the most important and prestigious stops on the film festival circuit and the city has made movie headlines again with a mainstream Bollywood flick making a world premiere outside of India for the first time.

The hotly-anticipated film "Guru", starring Aishwarya Rai (pictured), one of the biggest and highest-paid stars in Indian film who's considered one of the most beautiful women in the world, and her rumoured real-life love Abhishek Bachchan, was screened for the first time at the Elgin Theatre Thursday night.

The landmark premiere put local fans in a frenzy, some shelling out hundreds of dollars for a ticket to the red-carpet event.

"I'm really excited! I'm a great fan," said Subakar Thayalachelvam, co-owner of the Bollywood DVD Centre in Toronto.

"I've actually purchased a ($250) ticket but then I gave it away because I couldn't go."

Hundreds of fans packed Yonge Street to catch a glimpse of the two stars, whose flight was unfortunately delayed.

There were rumours circulating that the couple planned to announce their engagement while in Toronto for the film's premiere.

Mayor David Miller personally invited Rai and Bachchan after Mississauga-based Roger Nair Productions snagged the Canadian distribution rights.

"Guru", directed by Mani Ratnam, is a rags-to-riches love story about a man trying to climb the business ladder. It opens across Canada on Friday.

Indian films have drawn huge crowds in Toronto before. The number of fans that turned out to see "Never Say Goodbye" at the last Toronto International Film Festival greatly outnumbered the crowd for the Oscar-touted Brad Pitt/Cate Blanchett flick "Babel".

"Let's say the crowds for `Never Say Goodbye' were probably 10 times the size of the crowds that turned out for Mr. Pitt. So the fact that there's excitement in the city for a major new movie by a director I consider one of the best working in South Asia is no surprise at all," festival co-director Noah Cowan said.

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