Bollywood star Katrina Kaif to be model for the Indian Barbie

After a string of hit films Katrina Kaif, 24, from Finchley, has become a Bollywood goddess, worshipped by millions and mobbed by fans whenever she steps out of a limousine.

Indian directors love her combination of pale skin and classical Indian features, from her Kashmiri father and English mother: she has a classical type of Indian beauty and the perfect look for India's film world.

Miss Kaif said she felt "honoured" to be chosen as the face of the doll, which marks Mattel Toys' 50th anniversary and which will be eagerly awaited by millions of girls across the subcontinent.

That success was a satisfying triumph that will have turned her greatest rival, Aishwariya Rai Bacchan, green with envy after she missed out on the Barbie contract.

Since arriving in Mumbai in 2003 Miss Kaif has been the female lead in ten movies, including six Hindi movies since 2007, although she is still some way behind Mrs Rai Bacchan's total of 34 starring roles. Miss Kaif was voted most popular Bollywood celebrity in Google's 2008 India Zietgeist list.

Her career got off to a disastrous start with a critically panned crime caper called Boom, in which she shocked conservative Indian audiences by stripping down to her bra for one steamy scene.

But she reinvented herself to play girlfriends in commercial films. "I'm the girl in the tank top and the short skirt who you could take home to meet your mother," she said.

When she first arrived in Mumbai she could not dance or sing and did not speak Hindi.

She said: "Becoming a film star in India has been a dream come true but you do always have to put on a performance, so sometimes it is good to get away. That's when I head back to London. I can walk down Finchley High Street and no one recognises me. I certainly can't do that in Mumbai or Delhi."

After seven years of hard work she has no plans to leave it all behind to come back to Finchley, although she said she would consider the right British or American project if it was offered.

Mrs Rai Bacchan, who at 35 is a decade older than Miss Kaif, is one of the few Indian actresses to have broken into the Western film world; she starred in Bride and Prejudice, the reworking of the Jane Austen story in an Indian setting.

Miss Kaif said that she is ready for more challenging roles. She has been in discussion with a director who plans to cast her in a political thriller, and her name has been linked to a story about Scarlet Keeling, the young British woman who was murdered in Goa.

"Nobody cares a damn about her English background," said Indu Mirani, a veteran Indian film critic. "The audience likes her - she is pretty, she can dance, and she can speak Hindi now, although it is still rather accented."

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