She’s not your typical Bollywood bombshell, but American Desi star Purva Bedi is all set to wow Indian audiences, says Hermoine Macura

Though her figure fills a sari in all the right places, and her charming smile lights up her soft features, her looks are not the first thing that strike you. It is actually her easy going and friendly nature that makes that first impression.

You might have caught a glimpse of her on the American television series, ‘ER’, or seen her live in one of her many theatre productions and more recently, in Piyush Pandya’s romantic comedy, ‘American Desi’, as a college student, who teaches a classic ‘ABCD’ about his Indian culture.

Impressive Lineage
Born in Chandigarh, Punjab, and raised in Manhattan, Purva is currently based in New York where she has been involved in various films and theatre projects, including Ankhil Sharma’s Cosmopolitan and Keshni Kasyap’s, Good Stuff .

Hailing from a family of journalists, educators and businessmen, Purva’s mother, Susham Bedi, is a Hindi novelist, an actress, and a professor of Hindi and English Literature at Columbia University. And just in case you aren’t impressed yet, her grandmother Laj Bedi has starred in over 70 Bollywood films!

No Stereotypes Please!
Purva’s credentials are a mile long, stemming all the way to London where she trained at the British American Drama Academy. From the US series ER to Shiraz Jafri’s romantic comedy The Arrangement (a film about two Indian families in America who are forcing their American-born children into an arranged marriage, also co-starring Lisa Ray), Purva’s roles remain diverse and in many ways break away from the stereotypical female roles of today.

Be it playing a strong-minded college girl in the US to being involved in a documentary investigating acid victims in Bangladesh, her roles are by no means conventional — remember that knockout punch she gives a guy who dares to rough her up in American Desi ?

And for those of you who have been bowled over by her charm, watch out for her new show Wings Of Hope , where she plays a supportive sister who works to keep her family together.

Bollywood Calling?
So what is she doing in Bombay? Well, apart from her love of India, Purva is here to promote her latest film Green Card Fever directed by Bala Rajasekharuni and sign up some movie deals.

Ah, Bollywood beckons, does it? Well, she says she is open to doing a Bollywood movie “when the right project comes along”, and by the way things are going we just might end up seeing Purva dancing around trees, continuing to bring the East to the Western audiences as elegantly as possible.