Telly Turn

As a child Sonal Sehgal had her parents worried because she dreamt of becoming Charlie Chaplin. "It's such a coincidence that not only did I get into acting, but my first film U, Bomsi and Me is a comedy," laughs the 26-year-old star of soaps like Saara Akash and Hotel Kingston. Sehgal is now all set for her big screen debut and plays an air stewardess married to a radio jockey in the film about urban angst. Considering she's juggling a hectic TV schedule with a blossoming Bollywood career, stress is something Sehgal is not unfamiliar with.

Southern Spice

Looks, books and cooks-Padma Lakshmi has it all. After a small role in Paul Mayeda Berges' Mistress of Spices, she will feature as Moses' mother in ABC's mini-series Ten Commandments (slated for a 2006 release) and has a cookbook on the anvil. Must say the beauty is balancing catwalks, cardamoms and the commandments with total ease.

Little Big Man

Good things come in small packages. That's how Deep Roy, all of 4 ft 4 inches, would like to look at it. The star of Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory acquired overnight success, playing all the 165 Oompa-Loompas. The Nairobi-born actor, whose late parents were from India, even took dance lessons to perform the musical numbers. So is a Bollywood role in the offing? Sure, says Roy, but only "on my terms".

Designs on Dubai

Her father Gulshan Kumar was the boss of T-Series. But 22-year-old Khushali Kumar did not take to singing or acting. "I just didn't have the voice for it," laughs Khushali. Instead she turned her obsession with fashion into a profitable career. She not only retails from her signature store in Delhi and outlets in Hong Kong and Singapore, but is now all set to retail from Suneil Shetty's fashion store, Crossover, Bollywood Se, to be launched in Dubai on October 2. Her philosophy is simple, "I design clothes I would love to wear myself." Very much in tune, we think.

-Compiled by Kimi Dangor

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