Okay, so how did a London girl get here?
I’m New York-born, brought up in London. Chelsea, you know. I was wild about the Bombay movies. As a kid I’d wear salwaar kameez and drive my teachers mad by speaking in Hindi. Then I hopped back to New York to study acting at Lee Strasberg. I quit because I got a role here. They said, “Go! You have a life membership at the school anyway.” I was so inspired by Rangeela.

Great! Who is your father?
I attach very little importance to my father. He’s an American Indian Muslim. He left my mother when I was just three months old. I know his name – Ali Rizvi Khan – I even know where he lives in New York. He has never bothered to meet me, neither have I. That would have hurt if he had left at an age when I even knew how l.i.f.e is spelt. I don’t have any memory of what he looks like. But it does bother me that I still have his name on my passport.

You never wanted to meet him in New York?
The thought did cross my mind. When I was a bit bored.

Is this Mr Ali Rizvi a wealthy man?
He’d better not be. Then I’d really make sure that he gave us maintenance money because he didn’t. Look, all men who desert their daughters should be shot. From what I know, it was with another woman. This irritates the hell out of me. Perhaps if I was a boy it would have been different. I would have missed him we girls are tougher.

What about your sisters your stepfather?
My stepfather deserted us too in London. My sisters were two and four years old, I was seven. He took every penny out of the bank, also our house. We were homeless. Mum hopped around from house to house. Subsisting on low rents. Before this, she’d hosted lavish parties. Her friends vanished into thin air. We lived on McDonald’s burgers. Which was fun for us kids. But how long could this go on?

Why don’t you mention your mother’s name?
Rabia Amin. She writes.

What?
Concepts for BBC, Scripts for television in the UK .

Didn’t she act in Tahir Hussain’s Dulha Bikta Hai?
Yes and in Ankush, Locket, Vijay Anand’s Hum Rahe Na Hum and Subhash Ghai’s Meri Jung in a special appearance with Anil Kapoor. She had longer hair than mine and a super sexy voice.

What about the insistent reports that you’re Tahir Hussain’s daughter?
If such sick stories are spread, so be it. Look, my mum was an orphan. She was a Christian girl who came from Agra to Bombay to act. He discovered her when she was in Dehra Dun. She was then housed with Aamir’s family, Aamir’s mother Zeenat aapa taught her how to conduct herself as an actress and to speak in Urdu. Mum converted to Islam. Honestly, I’m not related by blood to Tahir Hussain’s family. I’m not his daughter.

Are you in touch with Tahir Hussain?
No. Mum meets Zeenat aapa occasionally and that’s it. I’ve never even met Aamir.

Say that again.
I have never met Aamir. I don’t even look like Aamir Khan remotely. All this sounds very complicated. Ha! I cannot imagine how it would have been with a perfect family or a father. If he had dominated me, I would have died of suffocation. Who are these men anyway? Okay, so maybe I’m a bit bitter. Perhaps this happens in India less often. In London, more couples get divorced and live separately. It’s no big deal. In Bombay, men hit on girls in a devious way, one can’t fathom what’s going on in their minds.

How come your mum encouraged you to join films here?
She didn’t. I had to prove that I could make it, in any case every profession can be manipulative. I was in Bombay for a holiday. I just walked into RGV’s office