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FEB 3: She is widely recognized as the American Desi girl. The talented Purva Bedi struck fame playing the lead role of Nina Shah in the popular college based romantic comedy. Her name implies 'from the east' but very much a Manhattan girl, Purva sees herself as an amalgam of both cultures.

Currently based both out of New York and Los Angeles, Purva's interests span films, television and theatre. She has acted in films such as Wings of Hope, Eastern Son, Green Card Fever, The Emperor's Club and The Arrangement. On television, she has appeared in two widely popular dramas 'ER' and on NBC's Emmy award winning drama 'The West Wing' and will be playing a large guest lead in Strong Medicine to be aired on Lifetime TV.

Theatrically, Purva has worked in the critically acclaimed off-Broadway hit, 'East is East' and in the lead role in the two-woman play "Clothes", a stage adaptation of a short story by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. She is a founding member and director of Disha theatre, the first South-Asian theatre company in New York which was established to develop a unique South Asian theatrical voice.
Purva finds artistic fulfilment from theatre, enjoys television and loves working in films. "I was always passionate about acting," she says. Purva started performing when she was barely five years old. Born in Chandigarh, Purva moved to Belgium with her family and later to New York City.

Purva studied at Williams College in Western Massachusetts and double majored in Theatre and Economics. She even stepped into the corporate world working at Morgan Stanley and Sony Music but soon left it to pursue her true passion.

American Desi was Purva's first feature in a lead role however she had acted with Deep Katdare before in a short film titled Vasarma's Lovers, written and directed by Madhurika Sona Jain. "American Desi was so much fun," says Purva, "It was full of young American actors like myself." Purva plays Nina, a college student in New Jersey who educates a young confused American Indian about his own culture. "I had heard the term ABCD - American Born Confused Desi before in college," says Purva, "It has been popularized by the movies." Purva received an Ammy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in the film. Commenting on the character she says, "Nina was so much more conservative than I am. I definitely knew the character but I am not as emphatic about teaching the Indian culture."

Definitely a mix of both cultures, Purva amusingly points out that she is considered to be the Indian girl in Hollywood. "Things are really starting to pick up in LA," says the young actress who spends more time out west exploring the possibilities of working in Hollywood films. "For the pure fun of it, I would love to do a Bollywood film as well."

Purva's upcoming films include Shiraz Jafri's The Arrangement in which she plays a part that is all about physical comedy. The actress plays an ugly duckling who transforms into a swan. The film is a romantic comedy about two Indian families who are forcing their American born children into an arranged marriage. The film also stars Lisa Ray and will be released in early 2003.

Her other upcoming ventures include Michael Hoffman's The Emperor's Club starring Kevin Kline where Purva plays a school teacher married to Rahul Khanna and Bala Rajasekharuni's Green Card Fever where Purva plays a lead role as a rebellious young woman who refuses to play by her parents rules in love and marriage.

Purva started Disha Theatre along with Rizwan Manji (Salim in American Desi) in June 2000 with the aim of developing a unique theatrical voice by fostering and producing work by writers, actors, directors, and other artists of the South Asian Diaspora. "At that time there were no other South Asian companies," says Purva who is glad that South Asian theatre community is now growing in New York. Disha world premiered recently the staged reading of Ravi Kapoor's play, The Prince of Delhi Palace which is the story of Hamlet told in a curry shop.

A huge fan of Shakespeare herself, Purva loves the challenge of theatre. She hopes to play great Shakespearean women including Lady M.
(Courtesy The Weekly Voice)