Meet a Bombay princess

'Oh my god,' chirrups Preeya Kalidas, in a mock thick Indian accent. 'So nice to see you.' We are at a shoot and Kalidas is greeting Jeremy Wooding, who directed her as the lead in Bollywood Queen, Britain's first home-grown Bollywood movie.

The film is due out in the autumn, by which time Kalidas will already be a star. In June she takes to the West End stage as Priya - the lovelorn leading lady in Bombay Dreams. Plus, she has a small but stand-out part as Asian rude girl Monika in April's movie, Bend it Like Beckham. Not bad for a 21-year-old whose previous career best was an episode lead in The Bill.

Kalidas is in the right place at the right time. With her exquisite Indian princess looks, she's the perfect muse for this year's obsession with all things Bollywood. But behind the almond eyes and joke accent, she's a middle-class Brit. Her Malawian father is a financial adviser. Born and bred in Twickenham, she trained - like Emma Bunton, Denise Van Outen and the Appletons - under Sylvia Young.

As a teenager, Kalidas loved watching Bollywood films, 'but not with mates. There were only three Asian girls at my school.' Her cultural upbringing was similar to her character in Bollywood Queen: 'Gina's an Asian East End girl who falls in love with a white guy. Like me, she has to balance her Indian culture with the Western culture of school and friends. The soundtrack reflects that, too - there are garage and R&B tunes alongside the traditional Bollywood playback songs.'

Kalidas is contracted to star in Bombay Dreams for a year. Wooding hopes 'she doesn't get lost in Lloyd Webber land forever'. That doesn't seem likely.