Alice Patten, a talented young British actress, could set a record on February 13, if the Aamir Khan-starrer Rang De Basanti is still playing in England then.
In that scenario, Alice will claim the distinction of being the only actress who is in a Bollywood film as well as a West End show.
Hamlet, where Patten plays Ophelia opposite Ed Stoppard's Prince of Denmark, will have its premiere in London's West End on February 13.
West End is as pivotal to British theatre as Broadway is to America.
Rang De Basanti is currently scheduled to release on January 20.
Alice, daughter of Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, is the third British actress in an Aamir Khan film following Rachel Shelley in Lagaan and Coral Beed in The Rising.
Speaking of British actors, the Ketan Mehta film The Rising also starred Toby Stephens, son of the legendary English actress Dame Maggie Smith (Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films), in a pivotal role opposite Khan.
In Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Rang De Basanti, Patten plays a filmmaker who comes to India to shoot a film on Indian freedom fighters.
Continuing the discussion about lineage, it is worth noting that Patten isn't the only actor in the Hamlet production to boast of a distinguished father. Ed Stoppard is the son of the legendary playwright Tom Stoppard, who lived in India as a child during the early 1940s.
Text: Arthur J Pais
