Bollywood is stepping into controversial terrain with the new spy thriller, "Madras Cafe", which represents the conflict period in Sri Lanka raising concerns among India's large Tamil population.

The movie, which opens in India this month, features John Abraham as an Indian secret agent shortly after peace-keeping troops sent by New Delhi to Sri Lanka were forced to withdraw in 1990 following a three-year battle with separatist Tamil rebels.

Director Shoojit Sircar describes the movie as a "hardcore political film which examines conspiracies, espionage, how information is coded, decoded and passed through".

While the film's main character is fictitious, Sircar said he had "used real references, portrayed rebel groups, revolutionary freedom fighters, Indian Peace Keeping Forces (and) shown how India got involved and the chaos".

"The bigger message is that in a civil war, civilians suffer the most," he told AFP.

"I did not want the usual India-Pakistan backdrop," he said. "I had been following this civilian crisis for a long time and integrated it into the main story."

Although the movie has passed India's censor board, the film may still face hurdles in the southern state of Tamil Nadu as the activists among the politically active Tamil population in India have already raised concerns over the movie's depiction of the rebels in the conflict.

Activist group Naam Tamilar (We Tamils) has asked the state government to stop the film's release, unhappy that the trailer depicted the LTTE as "terrorists", according to Indian media reports.

"We would like to see the film before its release," filmmaker Sebastian Seeman, who heads the group, told Indo-Asian News Service.

 “We would let the film pass if we don't find any scene in the film objectionable" he said.

Madras Cafe Official Trailer ►