Bollywood actresses beware! A 24-year-old Norwegian Indian is eyeing the top spot in the Hindi film industry.

Meet model-actress Mahek Chahal whose parents migrated to Norway from Punjab.

"Back home, we speak Norwegian, I think in Norwegian, I studied in a Norwegian-medium school," tells Mahek, who in between shoots flies from Nepal to Dubai to London for dance shows and ramp modelling.

"When I became interested in acting, I knew no Hindi. My first film, 'Neetho', was in Telugu and director Surya Prakash had the dialogues dubbed.

"So when I auditioned for my first Hindi film and the selectors said I had an accent problem, I wondered what the fuss was about since they could always dub it."

The film, which she did not land, was "Ajnabi", which made model Bipasha Basu a star.

That's when Mahek says she realised how much grooming she needed.

"Though I was free in front of the camera, I needed to learn voice modulation and body language and I needed practice."

So she enrolled at Kishore Namit's acting school in Mumbai, which has groomed newcomers to Bollywood like Hrithik Roshan and former beauty queens Priyanka Chopra and Dia Mirza.

Last year "Nayee Padosain", a romantic comedy where she played a south Indian girl with an aptitude for classical dances, was released, followed by a quick appearance in the Kareena Kapoor starrer "Chameli", where Mahek did an item number.

Currently, she has two new films in the pipeline where she plays the lead - "Two", a thriller directed by Raj Kaushal, and "Strangers", another whodunit with Hansal Mehta as its director.

So what made her pull out her roots from Norway, where her parents and siblings are, and come knocking at Bollywood's door?

"I used to love Hindi films," she says, "and when I started going to London for fashion shows, I realised how well connected London and Mumbai are.

"Hindi films are growing popular worldwide and I thought as an Indian, I would have more chances to make it in Bollywood than in Hollywood. Hollywood doesn't have too many roles for Indians. Hinglish movies, like Gurinder Chadha's, are not all that frequent."

Besides, for Indian aspirants, Bollywood's demands are easier to cope with than Hollywood's, she said.

"After all, only Aishwarya Rai can say to Hollywood that she won't do any kissing scenes, even in a Bond movie. That's because she is Aishwarya Rai. It's a luxury we newcomers don't have."