Malaysia will have yet another opportunity to revel in the song, dance and color of Bollywood, only this time around, it will be on the big stage instead of the silver screen.

The acclaimed musical The Merchants of Bollywood will make its debut in Malaysia, making its only tour into Asia; the show will be featured as part of this year’s Kuala Lumpur Festival. Highlighting the musical will be several scores composed by Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman. Malaysia is the eighth country to host the musical, as part of its five-year international tour, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa and Australia have experienced the all-song, all-music Indian production.

Featuring an original traveling cast, The Merchants of Bollywood sheds entertaining light on the history of India’s popular film industry and has played in sold-out theaters and will be the only international production staged at Istana Budaya, or Palace of Culture, this year.

“Their energy is electrifying, their movements suffused with a rush of joy and yet ruthlessly precise, and the frenetic flow of onstage activity is almost non-stop,” a Times of London commentary observed. “It’s a high octane pleasure to warm up the coldest winter night.”

The musical focuses on Ayesha Merchant, an aspiring Bollywood actress who happens to be the granddaughter of Shantilal Merchant, the critically acclaimed dance choreographer from the golden era of the Hindi film industry. With her eyes set on stardom, Ayesha leaves her home for Mumbai and finds success in several films. However, she is drawn back home from her childhood sweetheart and sickly grandfather.

A 90-minute narrated musical, The Merchants of Bollywood features 48 high-octane dance numbers, 1,200 costume changes, 2,500 pieces of Indian jewelry, a cast of 53, and 40 years of Bollywood history. In typical Rahman fashion, the musical score features a combination of Indian classical dance, funk, disco and hip-hop.

Written by award-winning director Toby Gough and produced by Mark Brady, the idea of the musical was spawned when the duo ate a meal at a New Zealand restaurant aptly named Bollywood. Both will appear with Vaibhavi Merchant, Bollywood’s award-winning choreographer and “Queen of Romance” at opening night at Istana Budaya, a state-of-the-art musical theater. The production is a semi-biographical sketch of Vaibhavi, who has worked with the biggest names in Bollywood, including Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan.

The Merchants of Bollywood will be held in Malaysia from July 14 to 26th, 2009 at Istana Budaya, which was built in 1999. Debuting in 2006, the Australian production also features stunning costumes and set designs. Actors were originally chosen from Film City Mumbai, the first Bollywood production to tour internationally with such a cast.

Malaysia has been a popular destination for Bollywood film productions ever since One Two Ka Four, starring Khan, was filmed there. Last year, Khan was named a Datuk, the Malaysian equivalent of knighthood.