Kylie makes Bollywood debut

Updated March 9, 2009 15:59:59

Kylie Minogue has added a new role to her long list of credentials; Bollywood star.

She was in Mumbai to perform in a big-budget Hindi musical.

Presenter: Alana Rosenbaum
Speakers: Kylie Minogue, entertainer; Lara Dutta, actor. Kabir Bedi, actor

COMPERE: Now ladies and gentlemen, our very, very special guest, Kylie.

ROSENBAUM: Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue makes her first public appearance in India, as she wraps up a Bollywood film.
Minogue says she jumped at the offer of a cameo role in Blue, a romantic epic in Hindi about a search for deep-sea treasure.

MINOGUE: This has been amazing, I have wanted to be part of a Bollywood film for a while and the dream came true.

ROSENBAUM: Minogue spent a week in Mumbai shooting a dance sequence and recording an English song by A.R. Rahman, the Indian composer who wrote an Oscar-winning score for the film Slumdog Millionaire.

Wearing a green satin mini-dress, Minogue jokes with Mumbai's press pack, during her one and only public appearance to promote Blue.

JOURNALIST: Kylie, it's one for you, do you find Indian men hot?

MINOGUE: Yes

JOURNALIST: And can we ask you to choose the hottest of them all, I mean you are sharing the dais with the best of them.

MINOGUE: You can't ask me things like that, just take a look around you, for goodness sake.

ROSENBAUM: Minogue plays beside some of the best-known actors in Bollywood. Former Miss Universe Lara Dutta stars in the film.

DUTTA: We absolutely could not wait to get on the set with Kylie, she is an absolute dream to work with, one of the most down to earth, lovely people we've met, so I welcome her and take this opportunity to say thank you for coming to our country.

ROSENBAUM: Blue is partly shot in the Bahamas and is believed to be one of the most expensive Indian movies ever made.
Minogue is among a growing number of international stars being courted by Bollywood, to make Indian films more marketable outside the sub-continent.
Actor Kabir Bedi says Indian films are finally getting international recognition.

BEDI: All of us share in the joy that we felt when we saw Bollywood being performed in the middle of the Oscars for Slumdog, when the Indian flag was planted in foreign shores. In no uncertain terms, I think the Bollywood industry needs to create more films that move beyond Bollywood's traditional audiences to international audiences that have never seen Bollywood before.

ROSENBAUM: US actors Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger are believed to have signed up for cameos in Hindi films. And as for Minogue, Indian audiences may well be seeing more of her.

JOURNALIST: Are you game for more offers?

MINOGUE: Ah, we'll see; this experience is still sinking in. I am sure I will get home and think, did that really happen? It's been such a whirlwind but certainly I would love to be with these people again. Blue will be released internationally in August,

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