Bollywood beckons Rani for TV show

SHE HAS already explored her family history for Who Do You

Think You Are?, and hit the dancefloor for Strictly Come Dancing. Now Bradford-born Countryfile presenter Anita Rani will explore another of her passions, Bollywood, for a new documentary.

Rani, inset, who studied at the University of Leeds, teased the show with posts on her Twitter and Instagram profiles.

Alongside a photo of her in a group of four people clasping hands and wearing traditional Indian clothing, the presenter wrote: “Major announcement!

“I’ve made a programme I’ve been wanting to make forever, all about Bollywood!

“It’s coming to a TV screen near you this summer.

“A look into the World’s Biggest Film Industry and modern India. “I think you’re going to love it.” Rani, 40, previously appeared on the Who Do You Think You Are? in 2015, where she explored her own Indian family history. She was born in Bradford to a Hindu father and a Sikh mother. During the programme she uncovered more information about her maternal grandfather’s first wife and their children, who died during the violence of the partition of India. Speaking to The Yorkshire Post after the film aired, Rani said the experience “changed” her. “I knew a bit about that period in history, but really only what you can get from books,” she said. “I was determined not to blub, but on the first day of filming with my mum she started crying. “I was overwhelmed by how I felt, and I was shocked by my own reaction.” In 2011, she co-hosted two programmes with fellow journalist Justin Rowlatt called India On Four Wheels, which analysed the changes growing car usage had brought to the country over the previous 20 years.