INDIA’S largest private company, Sahara India Pariwar, has launched a marketing campaign to capture the spending power of Britain’s two million Asians.

The £7 billion financial and real estate conglomerate, which is barely known outside the subcontinent, wants to sell holidays, second homes, savings products and entertainment to non-resident Indians and other UK Asians — a market that is estimated to be worth more than £10 billion in spending power.

Kicking off its campaign to plant the Sahara brand in the UK marketplace, from tomorrow the Indian company is sponsoring a three-day festival of Bollywood films in Leicester Square, London. Similar events are planned during the week in New York and San Francisco.

The wealth of overseas Indians had been barely tapped by companies from the subcontinent, Shailendra Singh, a company spokesman, said.

“The funds flowing from non-resident Indians is huge. We have housing, entertainment, insurance. Indians in India don’t have so much purchasing power, but, if we can build on our brand equity, we can connect with Indians abroad.”

Expatriate Indians sent $18 billion (£10 billion) back to their mother country last year, a 30 per cent rise on 2002, and Sahara wants to tap into this lucrative emotional connection. A decision to expand into feature films gives Sahara an instant audience worldwide, as does its talent for publicity — the firm sponsors the India cricket team.

Sahara is producing Phir Milenge, a film launched this week with an HIV theme, a taboo subject in India, and Sahara managed to give away 1,300 tickets for its Bollywood festival within a few hours after a promotion on Sunrise Radio, the Asian channel.

Sahara was founded in 1978 by Subrata Roy as a doorstep business offering India’s army of low-paid shopkeepers, hawkers and cart-pullers a savings vehicle for their spare change. It now owns satellite TV channels and an airline.