40's the new 30, says Meera

"I really believe 40 is the new 30," she said. Showing off a new layered haircut and a plunging top, Syal added: "Cliché it may be, but you're really as old as you feel. Mentally, I'd say, I was 27."

The actress, who married her Kumars co-star Sanjeev Bhaskar in January, has dropped two dress sizes through a training regime and "eating less of everything". She said: "Our mothers were middle aged by 40. We no longer think marriage and kids mean we have to give up our lives.

"My friends range from 30 to 60 and you couldn't pin them down by their age. We're all looking younger, dressing younger, getting married later and enjoying the flowering of our good years."

She said she was now

comfortable with her appearance: "I can't remember the last time I beat myself up about not having a flat stomach or thin nose. I feel sexy, that's good enough for me.

"I've come to terms with who I am. I'm never going to be a size 10, I'm never going to look like [Bollywood star] Aishwarya Rai and I'm never going to win that Oscar. Probably." In an interview with magazine Asiana, Syal also spoke of her romance with Bhaskar, 40.

The couple were married in a low-key ceremony in Staffordshire attended by only 20 guests.

They had been friends for 10 years, and kept their relationship secret after it blossomed during a working trip to Australia in 2003.

Sporting a platinum and

gold wedding ring, Syal said: "I suddenly saw him in a new light. We've been friends for a long time. We can work together, know each other's good points and faults."

The pair first worked together on BBC2's Goodness Gracious Me. In comedy chat show The Kumars, on the same channel, Syal plays Granny Sushila and Sanjeev is her grandson. Syal, who has a 12-yearold-daughter, Chameli, from a previous marriage, also admitted she might like to have more children.

Speaking of her work on a forthcoming BBC1 adaptation of her novel Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee, she said: "During the filming I had all these different babies on set and I got incredibly broody."