When I was younger I was fat. I was never conscious of it and was content with who I was because I was so loved. My mother never told me to lose weight and my father doted on me, but my agent told me. I tried, but I loved Indian food too much.

I feel like I have one foot in New York, one foot in London and one foot in India. But it's important to me to invest time with family.

The generation that migrated to the West in the 1970s or 1960s has now lived more in the West than India, and India has changed so much. My parents fall into that category.

Luckily my parents were not against my ambition, they've always been very supportive. But they were adamant that I went to university first.

I loved eating and I did put on weight. I never actually felt fat until I started going for castings, for auditions.

I love roles where I have to transform myself.

I went to Brunel University and very much wanted to go on to do a PhD in management, but then my acting career started to take off. In those days when you switched on the box there were hardly any brown or black faces.