Policemen guarded dozens of cinemas across India to deter violence after a Hindu hardline party vandalised movie theatres to protest against a Bollywood film about a love affair between two women.

Police officers will be posted outside dozens of cinemas, including many swanky multiplexes, that are showing the Hindi film Girlfriend in Bombay, New Delhi, the northern towns of Lucknow and Varanasi and the central town of Bhopal.

?We are mounting a close watch on theatres showing Girlfriend in view of the incidents in other parts of the country,? said Delhi police spokesman Ravi Pawar.

On Monday, nearly 100 student activists of the Hindu right-wing Shiv Sena smashed window panes, tore up posters and burnt effigies at a theatre showing Girlfriend in Bombay, the capital of India?s hugely popular Bollywood film industry.

Shiv Sena members said the movie went against the grain of Indian culture by portraying scenes of lovemaking between two women. They also attacked a theatre screening the film in the northern Hindu holy city of Varanasi. There were no injuries in either incident. Recent films by some Bollywood directors have featured unconventional treatments of such themes as adultery, usually handled in strictly traditional ways by commercial Hindi cinema.

Fire, a film by Indian-born director Deepa Mehta, also drew the ire of Hindu hardliners in 1998 because it featured a relationship between two women. Sceenings were later halted.

Members of the Shiv Sena said they plan more protests over Girlfriend. ?We?ll not allow such a film to be screened,? Arun Pathak, a leader of the group, told Reuters by telephone from Varanasi. ?What one does in the bedroom and bathroom should not be displayed publicly.? Authorities in several cities said they were ready to tackle further attempts to disrupt screenings. ?The film has been passed by the Censor Board,? Dharam Singh, a senior government official in Varanasi, said. ?We will deal with troublemakers firmly. We?ve deployed enough police outside movie halls.?

Newspapers gave the events wide coverage and the Hindustan Times headlined its front-page story: ?Culture cops don?t like Girlfriend?. Some critics have panned the film, with one reviewer saying it was ?redolent with clichés? and filled with ?C-grade raunch?.

India produces about 1,000 movies a year many of them three-hour boy-meets-girl candyfloss dramas with lavish sets and song-and-dance scenes.