THE STORY SO FAR: Indira Varma

Indira, now 43, is currently starring as Detective Nina Suresh in the crime drama Paranoid (9pm, ITV). Here’s where you may have seen her before…

Exotic beginnings Half-Indian, half-Swiss actress Indira ruffled feathers with her first role out of Rada – in 1996’s Kama

Sutra: A Tale Of Love – so much so that it was banned in her dad’s native India. She insists the film was untitled when she accepted the role, so she wasn’t fully aware of what it was – but she made sure that her father never saw it. Over the next few years, stage and TV roles ( Psychos, Attachments, Canterbury Tales) followed, but she blames that film for stalling her career. Indira had a mainstream movie hit in 2004, in the more dad-friendly Bride & Prejudice. Bollywood to Hollywood After securing a role in UK-US show Rome – which ran for two series in 2005 and 2007 – Indira headed west to try her hand in America. Medical drama 3 lbs – which also starred Stanley Tucci – was a high point of her time there, but sadly short-lived – it was cancelled after three weeks.

Back to Blighty Philosophical about her limited success in the US – ‘I just wasn’t born with the right bone structure or length of limb for Tinseltown’ – Indira returned to the UK, where she’s rarely been off our screens, with roles over recent years including Luther, Silk, Hunted, What Remains and Game Of Thrones (more nudity). On the big screen, watch out for Una, also starring Rooney Mara, which is out in October.