New Bollywood Star rises in Birmingham

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">LONDON: The fat lady has sung - straight from Birmingham to Bollywood - as Britain''s first televised talent contest to find a genuine, 24-carat Hindi film star throws up a 34-year-old obese fire station clerk with a gift for empathy and copious tears.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Rupak Mann, who is coming to cinema screens near you as fast as director Mahesh Bhatt gets his new film off the ground, is being hailed as the heroine of a new, politically-correct Bollywood.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Mann won the much-hyped British TV show, Bollywood Star, late on Tuesday night before nearly two-million surprised viewers.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">In the process, she beat off 999 other Bollywood hopefuls from British shores.These including shoals of fin-haired, tattooed, third-generation British Asians and whole schools of white people with stars in their eyes.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">News of Mann''s unlikely victory swept like wildfire through Britain''s small-but-devoted Bollywood fan club. Seen as a victory for "large women" within the world''s largest film industry, Mann confessed to finding Bollywood exceptionally welcoming and kind.</span><br /><br /><a href="/articleshow/msid-751414,curpg-3.cms">‘Dark’ filly fails to win the race</a><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"I thought I would be laughed at, but I feel I have won anyway", she confessed just minutes before Bhatt announced she was Britain''s first genuine, film-star export to Bollywood.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Her win dramatically cast in the shade 25-year-old prima donna TV presenter Sofia Hayat; 23-year-old drama student Heidi Mumford and 27-year-old Heathrow train attendant Ricky Virdee from Southall.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">The accolades come at a difficult time for the Hindi film industry. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Its embrace of a woman, jokingly described by some as so large she has no sideways, comes just days after one of Mann''s failed rivals said Bollywood was racist.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">South African-born Indian finalist, Rivona Essop, had publicly denounced Bollywood for failing her because she was "too dark".</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Essop made headlines around the world with her sensational claims that the world''s largest film industry, which serves a nation of one-billion brown people, preferred light-skinned heroines.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">There is no comment from Mann herself. Bollywood''s future star is currently in Birmingham, TV producers Maverick told TNN. She heads for Mumbai to start shooting Bhatt''s new film next month, they confirmed.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Mann was one of six finalists who were taken to Mumabi to audition before Pooja and Mahesh Bhatt.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Mann, who did her final turn for the cameras with new red streaks in her hair, was shown hilariously attending stunt school with Mumbai expert Mahendra Verma.</span></div> </div>