Antonia Bernath is visibly embarrassed when shown some of the rave reviews of her performance in Kisna (?Antonia is the best of the lot?, ?has great acting talent?, ?a scene-stealer?, ?outstanding!?, ?a star has been born?), including one in which she is compared with her costar, Vivek Oberoi, to the latter?s disadvantage (?In her scenes with Vivek, we are exposed to the vast difference in acting capabilities between the two. Bernath is overpowering?.and steals the show.?).

She sticks up loyally for Vivek. ?I feel somewhat guilty because Vivek helped me so much, particularly with the Hindi which was a nightmare.? Given that even reviewers who been harsh about Subhash Ghai?s latest movie have generally gone out of their way to praise Antonia, it would be easy for her to be all sugar and sweet about her first and totally unexpected brush with Bollywood. But at 24, fresh out of drama school, she has not yet learnt to be devious or diplomatic and tends to blurt out the truth. She seems genuinely grateful for the way she was looked after during her seven months in India, when she confesses she was ?very homesick and lonely? and disturbed by poor safety standards on Indian sets.

Not to put too fine a point on it, Vivek could have been killed when a cart keeled over during a stagecoach chase scene. Antonia is lucky she was not hurt but the whole UK-Bollywood collaboration, now burgeoning into something substantial, could have ended in disaster. It was not so long ago that the British media angrily reported the death of Nadia Khan, the young British Asian assistant director knocked down by a train on the set of Kaizad Gustad?s Mumbai Central.

?It?s tragic and not wholly surprising given the way things often seem to be done,? observes Antonia, who is anxious her criticisms should not be taken out of context. ?I felt strongly about that (the accident involving Vivek) at the time but I have to be careful now because everyone is so angry with me for saying all that stuff. I do believe the safety of the actor and all the people is important. He got seriously hurt in an avoidable accident. The cart tipped over and landed on him and I was involved in a cart crash and there was some dishonesty in the way it was relayed to my agent. I wasn?t hurt but I could have been ? very easily.?

OOn one occasion, Aishwarya Rai did turn up on the set of Kisna, but was speedily whisked in and out. ?She must have thought me rude because I kept staring at her. She?s so beautiful.? When the light catches Antonia at a particular angle, she looks a little like Aishwarya herself. Perhaps it?s her startling blue eyes, still filled with wonder at how quickly Bollywood has transformed her life.

To say that Antonia abandoned her three-year course at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School is not entirely accurate. She had won a scholarship to the school, one of only five girls to get in out of the 1,000 who applied for a place. The training was rigorous, ?seven in the morning till eight at night?.

She had already got herself an agent, Dallas Smith, who was tipped off by well-known casting agents, Daniel and John Hubbard, that a big man from Bollywood called Subhash Ghai was looking for a British female lead. ?I really, really, desperately wanted it,? Antonia admits, thereby signalling that going for a job in Bollywood is no longer considered weird for Westerners. Ghai had seen a hundred girls in London and a similar number in Los Angeles, but he had an instinct about Antonia?s fragile, English rose looks. Offered the part, she jumped at the chance. ?I left slightly early but to all intents and purposes I had finished my course,? she explains. ?I was halfway through my final year. It was incredible right out of drama school to get such a big and fleshy role.?

Although she plays the quintessential English girl, Antonia?s origins are more mixed. Her father, Paul Bernath, a former actor and graphic artist who did drawings for Disney, is American. Until she was 11, Antonia lived in America. Her mother, Sarah Bernath, who was half English and half Norwegian, ?sang for a bit, modelled a bit?. ?My mother died when I was 13, so I miss her a lot,? adds Antonia, who has been brought up in the English countryside in Wiltshire by her maternal grandmother, Audrey Goodrich, to whom she is ?very close?.

In Kisna, the story of Kisna is told in flashback by an older Katherine (played by British actress Polly Adams). ?My gran was the one I thought of when I did Kathy,? reveals Antonia. ?My gran is very strong and very loyal but strong in an understated way,? continues Antonia, who took her grandmother, now 83, to a recent late night screening of Kisna in London. It was the first time either had seen the movie. Antonia?s grandmother ?hated the bit in the beginning where I was giggly. She said I had completely overdone it but she said I was more natural towards the end.?

While her grandmother?s favourites included Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, Antonia herself had been brought up on a wholesome diet that comprised the large film library at home. Disney was allowed but Amadeus, with its bloody scenes, was a top-shelf movie kept out of her reach. She ?stole? it and had nightmares for a week.

She prepared for her debut in Bollywood by watching Taal, Devdas, Kal Ho Naa Ho (?which I really loved?), Monsoon Wedding and ?the Merchant Ivories?, plus reading some Raj literature, including Paul Scott?s The Jewel in the Crown. While Ghai found the British artiste supremely professional, Antonia, too, was deeply impressed with Bollywood. ?I was learning from such incredible actors like Om Puri,? she acknowledges. She does not share the lukewarm reviews of Vivek?s performance, which she labels ?fantastic? (one of her favourite words). ?He really wanted to act, and not overdo it. He wants to go into the Western market as well (as Aishwarya?). His English is amazing. He is an encyclopaedia. He studied at NYU and is just a sponger of facts. She taps her head. ?Literally, anything he hears, he just puts in there. He is unbelievably intelligent ? and really talented.?

Since she lost her little camera within a day of arriving in India, she considers the locations shown in the film ? from Film City in Mumbai to Rishikesh, Raniket, Nainital and an ashram in Haridwar ? to be an accurate record of places visited. On the shoot, she had to get used to heavier make-up ? ?panstick? ? which she was told was essential in a hot climate. She also adapted to the absence of a final script. ?In England, you have a set script and a set timetable, whereas Mr Ghai works very much in a free way, so the script is constantly improved on and you are given the new version as you go along. I found that quite exciting.?

Ft seems unlikely that established British or American actors would be quite as accommodating. ?Mr Ghai was very nurturing and he would let me see the monitor and he looked after me. People were very honest and would say to me, ?No, that was bad, do that again.?? She reckons Bollywood filmmakers ?are professional but they have the luxury of going back and doing it (a scene) again. We don?t in the West because time is money.?

Both Antonia and her grandmother found the film ?stunningly beautiful?. ?Ashok Mehta (the cinematographer) took a lot of time with the lighting. We would do a couple of takes of the actual scene but everything was so perfectly set up.? To safeguard Antonia?s health, she and the British contingent were cooked special food. ?I was treated wonderfully, I was looked after brilliantly and cooked special food.? She laughs on realising she is the first British actress to do a wet sari scene following a dip in the Ganga. ?The two of us (Kisna and Katherine) nearly kiss ? and in the English version, they will keep the kiss in,? she says. Ghai did shoot a kiss for the two-hour English version ? there is no kiss in the three-hour Hindi original. ?I prefer it without the kiss,? argues Antonia. ?It?s much more effective because he (Kisna) is being loyal to his wife to be, Laxmi (played by Isha Sharvani), even though he is falling in love with her (Katherine). The kiss was not very explicit but if he kisses her, it calls into question, ?How faithful is he?? I don?t like that. I like it when he is being completely loyal.? Ghai has come round to the same view and apparently intends to excise the kiss from the English cut which will be released in May. There is a rape scene where Antonia is shot from the back. It was going to be filmed with an extra but Antonia?s professional pride would not allow the double, who had a much fuller figure and short hair, to replace her. ?They were going to have her completely nude from behind,? she remembers. ?I said, ?I will do it but only if you have it (the shot) down to??? In the event, the camera strayed rather lower than Antonia wanted.

Thanks to her Bollywood triumph, she has landed two coveted roles ? as Elvis Presley?s wife, Priscilla, in a two-part American CBS television production and as Alice in Living Neon Dreams, a contemporary US version of Alice in Wonderland, starring Marilyn Manson, Daryl Hannah and Jonathan Pryce. Despite the problems with safety and the different working practices in Bollywood, Antonia seems to have had a good time. Where she has been, others from Britain will want to follow. ?I learnt a lot while I was out there,? she says. ?I grew up a lot.?