After 170 films and 27 years in moviedom, actor Om Puri says he is finally in a film as a hero.

"I've always played character roles and though in many film I've played the main character, it has never been the quintessential hero," says Puri, who was recently awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

His new film is "King of Bollywood", a satire on the Hindi film industry where he plays Karan Kumar, aka KK, the biggest - but ageing - star of Bollywood.

"He is a man who has grandiose notions about himself," said Puri. "But he is past his heydays and yet wants to cling on to them."

The film, directed by Piyush Jha, stars British model Sophie Dahl, the granddaughter of the author Roald Dahl. Puri, like many traditional Bollywood heroes, has many a costume and hairstyle change in the film.

"I wear 56 costumes and 17 wigs in the film," laughed Puri. "It's a 99-minute film and that's almost a new costume every two minutes - it's fascinating."

Dahl plays a documentary filmmaker of Indian origin from Britain who arrives in India to shoot a documentary on KK.

"The young documentary filmmaker has a long connection with my character. Her grandmother was a big fan of KK and she used to show her his films to get her to sleep," grinned Puri, dressed in an orange T-shirt and blue trousers.

The man who was one of the pioneer actors of the Indian art film movement in the 1960s and 1970s with films like "Ardh Satya", is now one of the most famous Asian actors in the world.

His international resume has highly acclaimed films like "The Mystic Masseur", "East Is East", "My Son The Fanatic", "The Ghost And The Darkness" and "City of Joy".

"It was amazing that I was given the OBE, I'm not a British citizen, I don't live in Britain. I was stunned," said Puri.

"Actually I've done so many films in Britain that a lot of people there think I live in London. I've been told that even Prince Charles thinks that I live in Britain!"

But Puri is very proud of his Indian roots. "I've been given the OBE mainly for my performance in British films. I believe if they saw my Indian films, they would have knighted me!"