Films: 'Val'king on the right track

The new year could see Nina Valand move towards starry fame. Some of her major films, including White Noise, are due for release in Feb.

The success of crossover films like Bend It Like Beckham and East is East and Lord Webber's musical magnum opus Bollywood Dreams made little known Asian actors stars overnight. Since then some of them like Parminder Nagra have moved on to even bigger things in the celluloid world. And more Asian talents are now being noticed. The talented and attractive rising star Nina Valand could be the hottest new Asian face in the world of films.

HT Image

Nina Valand
Actor, Trained at Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts
Films in 2005: White Noise, Unwanted Bride, Mother of Britain
The new year could see Nina Valand move towards starry fame. Several films in which she has major roles are due for release, including White Noise, in February.

She also has a major role in Unwanted Bride, which is the project of Planet Production and is being produced and directed by Vijay Khanna.

A short film based on the East and West cultural diferences, it is booked for screening in the US, Australia, Germany and in Birmingham and Manchester film festivals.

The Sky network will also telecast it. With such a schedule Valand could sparkle among the Asian stars in the coming months.

It has indeed been a long journey for her from Crawley, here she studied in a Sussex school and started acting on stage as Rani Vishnu after doing a course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

She worked with Raman Kumar in his drama Agnipanth, and then acted in an Urdu play, Tehezib Apni Apni, shot in London last year and produced by Savy Ali.

Savy Ali's new film

White Noise

is about a girl living a double life, with Rahul Bose and Koel Puri. She plays the role of Puri's best friend in the film.

Her next film in the pipeline this year is Mother of Britain. The film is about an Indian - British girl who finds it difficult to cope up with Indian culture in British atmosphere.

She agrees to an arranged marriage but then she gets drowned in a surfeit of problems.

This film in which Nina plays the lead role could take her places in the film world, especially with the growing trend for crossover movies.