Parminder Nagra

Variety voted her as the face to watch out for in future.

Parminder Nagra, who shot to fame as the heroine in Gurinder Chadha's as the football-mad daughter of a conservative Sikh family in Southall, has been included by , the film industry's bible, in the list of "10 actors to watch".

After the runaway success of Bend It Like Beckham, Chadha joined the list of Asian millionaires, but Nagra has since then been riding the bandwagon of both fame and riches. Her success has delighted the British film and theatre, as she has worked in the London Theatre for 10 years. She is being hailed as one among the five British stars who are being tipped for international stardom.

Until she hit big time with her star role in

Bend It Like Beckham,

Nagra was an unknown actress. Hardly anyone knew or heard of her in London. But now this petite Indian girl has eclipsed even the "original" Beckham, the fashion icon and world football celebrity, in the toughest of talent markets-America.

Nagra, who resisted her family pressure to get married and chose to pursue her acting career, is also making waves in Hollywood after catching the eye of Miramax Chairman Harvey Weinstein. The producers of ER spotted Nagra in Bend It Like Beckham and offered her a part as a new intern at the Chicago hospital.

She alos features in a poll in Empire magazine naming the most promising British movie talents along with Orlando Bloom, Kate Beckinsale and Sophia Myles and her Bend it co-star Keira Knightley.