The new dialogue, spoken in Hindi, is aimed at Bollywood audiences and will play in Asian specialist cinemas in England and Wales from Friday.

Jaffrey, whose first big Hollywood film role was starring with Michael Caine and Sean Connery in the 1976 John Huston epic The Man Who Would Be King, also played opposite Daniel Day Lewis in the memorable My Beautiful Launderette.

Saeed Jaffrey said : 'I was pleased to be able to help the TTA in its recruitment campaign. I hope it can help reach untapped pools of talent in the Asian community.'

The English speaking version of the canteach advertisement, has played in cinemas and on television since May last year, and has lead to a huge rise in applications to teacher training courses. A survey of trainee teachers taken in October 2002, confirmed the highest number of trainees on courses for twelve years, with over 2000 more people currently doing teacher training than a year ago.

In 2003 the TTA is seeking to recruit almost 35,000 trainees. This campaign is a deliberate effort to tap into the talents and skills of minority ethnic graduates and encourage them to apply for teacher training. Recent research with the audiences carried out by Edgar Garlek Ltd highlighted the need for a direct approach via special creative placement in relevant media.

The campaign includes radio advertisements aimed at Asian and Afro-Caribbean audiences on ethnic radio stations and will be complemented by a series of press advertisements aimed at a minority ethnic graduates.

The TTA's Alf Brown who leads the strategy to recruit more minority ethnic recruits into teacher training added:

'It is important we speak directly to minority ethnic graduates about teaching as a career. We are pleased with the increase in interest from applicants with a minority ethnic heritage but we still need to recruit more talented people this year and I am confident this campaign will help.'

Notes for editors

The Hindi broadcast version of the TTA canteach advertisement of the TTA will start broadcasting from February 21st in specialist Asian cinemas across the England and Wales.

For high resolution images of the press and tv advertisements, full details of locations of cinemas featuring the advertisements, information on the TTA's recruitment campaigns or any other information about the TTA call the Press office on 0207 023 8080.