Sir Ben Kingsley with his wife, Daniela

MUMBAI: Sir Ben Kingsley will complete a unique cinematic round-trip today, becoming the first Oscar-winner to appear in a Bollywood film nearly three decades after playing Gandhi propelled him to global fame.

The British actor, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of the father of Indian Independence in 1982, appears as Perci Trachtenberg — “the world’s greatest living mathematician” — in Teen Patti, a keenly awaited Hindi-language thriller.

Set in the upmarket casinos of London, the illegal gambling dens of Mumbai and the University of Cambridge, the film has been garnering headlines in India for months. Despite the inclusion of a raft of Bollywood A-listers, much of the hype has centred on Sir Ben. Gandhi made the actor, previously best known for a role in Coronation Street, a household name across the country. He recently spoke of how it felt “to be recognised and appreciated by a whole sub-continent”. He described “a humbling and steadying experience — unique for any actor”.

Richard Attenborough’s epic is shown on television in India every Independence Day. Some critics even suggest that its star has attained a kind of metaphysical significance.

“Sir Ben’s performance gave him a special stature,” said Subhash K. Jha, a leading Indian cinema critic. “He’s become a kind of human persona of Gandhi, a man many in this country consider to be a demi-god.”

The film’s longevity must also owe something to its sheer scale. One scene features a record 400,000 extras — numbers out of the reach of Indian film-makers who have tackled the same subject on a fraction of the British production’s budget.

Teen Patti (Three Husbands — a type of Indian card game) was made for $7.5 million (£4.5 million). It does not appear likely to achieve the heights of Gandhi, but may still represent a landmark. In it, Sir Ben, 66, will appear alongside another cinematic icon, Amitabh Bachchan, Bollywood’s most venerable superstar, who plays a reclusive mathematics genius whose latest formula renders chaos predictable.

The heavyweight pairing is being seen by some as emblematic of the growing ties — creative and commercial — being forged between Bollywood and Hollywood. The film was shot in London, Cambridge and Mumbai by the producer Ambika Hinduja, a member of India’s powerful Hinduja family.

She says that the project is an example of “globalised cinema” — a genre epitomised by Slumdog Millionaire, which was made for £15 million and went on to take more than £225 million at the box office.