Dame Judi Dench gets up from her chair to demonstrate her foray into Bollywood dancing. "We were told to do two steps," she laughs. "It was basically, 'Wash the dog' and then, 'Clap'! It was terrific."

The 80-year-old Oscar-winning actor is describing a wedding scene in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, where she dances with the bride and groom and other hotel guests to the rhythm of Jhoom barabar jhoom.

Dench is back in her role as Evelyn Greenslade, the widow who first arrived in India to escape from loneliness and found a world of possibilities. The film is a sequel to the 2012 hit, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a group of retired Brits seeking sun, companionship and adventure in a crumbling heritage hotel in Rajasthan.

With its star cast including Dame Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie and Dev Patel, the first film was a surprise international box office success, winning Best Picture nominations for the Bafta and the Hollywood Foreign Press Awards. The film struck a chord with many. It was not only about old age, but also about hope and finding love in unexpected places.

Almost immediately a sequel was in the planning. Directed once again by John Madden, the film is now ready to hit the screens on February 26 after a Royal Premier in London's Leicester Square.

We meet at the Claridges Hotel in London. Dench is in full form, dealing with the rounds of press interviews before the launch of the sequel. Somebody even addressed her as Dame Maggie Smith, she reveals, her sense of humour intact.

Undoubtedly, she is the grande dame of British screen and theatre. Ever since she played Ophelia in Hamlet at The Old Vic 57 years ago, she has been one of Britain's internationally recognised stars. Yet it was only when she was in her sixties that her career went global after she got an Oscar nomination for playing Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown. She picked up the Oscar for playing another British Queen, Elizabeth I, in Shakespeare in Love. Along with a slew of awards and nominations, popular recognition came with her role as "M" in the Bond series.

As we return to Marigold Hotel after four years, the story has moved on. "Nobody checks out till the ultimate check out," says Sonny Kapoor, played with infectious charm by Dev Patel. He is running the hotel with the help of Muriel (the indomitable Smith) who has grown from caustic xenophobe to being the centre of the family. The original guests have made it their home and most have started working locally.

Evelyn sources textiles for a British retailer while Douglas (Nighy) stumbles his way through as a tour guide. Madge (Imrie) and Norman (Ronald Pickup) run the Viceroy Club in their special way.

They are all looking comfortable in their adopted home. Matters of the heart, however, still need resolving. Madge has two eligible Indian suitors and can't make up her mind, while Norman is tempted by other women. Douglas and Evelyn don't seem to have made any progress either and Douglas remains hesitant and awkward. "What were they doing, for heaven's sake," says Dench. "Four years have gone by. Were they just having coffee?"

Only young Sonny has his goals in sight: marriage to the love of his life, Sunaina (Tina Desai), and building the business. He is looking to expand and start another hotel. As the preparations for the big fat Indian wedding go ahead, Sonny has to make sure that his expansion plans get the final nod.

Two new characters also check in: Richard Gere who plays Guy Chambers, a hotel inspector who is immediately attracted to Mrs Kapoor (Lillete Dubey), and Tamsin Greig as Lavinia Beech.

<,>T<,>he theme of the film - about integrating old people into society - was important to Dench. "We did it in our own lives," says the actor. After a Christmas break when her in-laws and her widowed mother came to visit, her husband, the actor Michael Williams, suggested that they all stay together.

The couple moved to a larger house in Stratford-upon-Avon with their parents. "It was a dream," Dench recalls. "Of course, there were problems, but it was wonderful. My daughter grew up with her grandparents." She also believes that it is important to learn something new every day as the characters in the film are doing.

For Dench, the story of Evelyn had a special resonance. When Williams died in 2001 after a battle with cancer, she was devastated. "I wouldn't have the courage of Evelyn [to leave for India]. I would have gone to Scotland! But I did three films back to back. Within two days I left for Canada to film The Shipping News with Kevin Spacey. Then I did Iris and then The Importance of Being Earnest. It was my way of coping."

I ask her what it was like to return to India. Her eyes light up. "I couldn't wait to go back," she says immediately.

"The first time I went there, I was nervous. But India has a huge impact on you. I will never forget the feeling when I first landed there... the colour and vibrancy, the noise and the traffic. It is a beautiful country with the most beautiful people. There is desperate poverty and incredible wealth." She pauses, as if she has suddenly remembered some of the scenes from the country that has become special to her.

Dench confesses that she bored her friends for days endlessly talking about India after her first visit. Returning to the country was even more special. "What was great was that all of us came back [to India]. The production crew were also the same, so we all knew each other already."

Her love affair with India is reflected in the clothes she has been wearing on the red carpet: flowing kurtas and glamorous jackets with zardosi embroidery and sequins. When we meet, she is wearing a long grey jacket cut Indian style over loose white trousers with a maroon pashmina shawl over one shoulder.

<,>S<,>he has favoured this sort of a flowing Indian style for several years - she wore Indian designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla's elegant kaftan-style creations at the London Film Festival last year and the premiere of the 2013 film Philomena. A pashmina draped over one shoulder has become her signature look.

"I have far too many pashminas," she laughs. "I can't stop buying them when I am there. And the silver jewellery is wonderful. Of course, you buy these lovely outfits and then come back to England and it's dull and grey and they just don't work! Then there is a sunny day and you can take them out and feel happy wearing them again!"

She has even learnt some Hindi. In the film, Dench has to chastise a textile factory owner in Hindi, asking him to respect old women. She is delighted when I tell her that her Hindi is pretty good. "I was so nervous. I practised those lines every day," she says.

So much so that she even said them inadvertently to a shopkeeper in Jaipur one day and he was most distressed. "But I respect you, Madam," the shopkeeper pleaded. "And I had to say, 'It's not you. I am saying my lines for the film.' It was quite a laugh."

She is now thinking of having an Indian-style tattoo. "Just a small one, on my wrist," she says. "I was shown this Indian symbol which apparently stands for life and love. But I'm nervous. What if it's something rude and I was just being set up!"

She will have to run it past her Indian friends to check it out. Meanwhile, there is the royal premiere of the film, and once again the choice of (Indian) clothes.

Dench, who stresses that she has no plans of putting her feet up and taking it easy, is soon going to appear on the London stage again. There is also a film in the pipeline with Tim Burton. After years of loneliness following the death of Williams, she has also - like Evelyn - found love again with wildlife conservator David Mills.

As Evelyn says in the film: "I thought, how many new lives can one have? Then I thought... as many as we like. While we can." The lines could have been written by Dame Judi Dench.