Apple hopes to entice Bollywood into using the G5 machines, made in collaboration with IBM, to edit, animate, and design special effects.

It said the G5 is the world's first personal computer to use 64-bit processing technology, in turn making it the world's fastest consumer PC.

"India is a huge untapped market for Apple and apart from traditional industries such as designing and animation we are also looking to Bollywood as a potentially large market," said Richard Ng, product marketing manager for Apple's Asia Pacific region.

"We have been in talks with producers and we have been getting a lot of positive feedback".

Apple dealers said the new processor is expected to go down well in the industry, especially with the new generation of filmmakers such as Farhan Akhtar and Raj Kumar Santoshi.

These filmmakers are already using the G4 to edit their films.

"Farhan Akhtar and Raj Kumar Santoshi are already using Macs and FCP 4 to edit their films," says Anil Achary, one of the biggest Apple dealers in the city.

Newcomers such as Rohan Sippy, who is directing "Kuch Naa Kaho" (Don't Say A Thing) starring Abhishek Bachchan and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai, is also enthusiastic about using the new technology.

"We were the first people in India to get FCP 4 and the first to edit our film on it. It made life a lot simpler and we were able to get things done a lot faster," Sippy said.

SPACE.WIRE