A Patten developing

FOR HER FIRST three days in India, her thoughts were mostly variations on: 'What have I got myself into?' But Alice Patten quickly found her feet, which was fortunate, since her film project stretched to almost eight months.

Making her debut in a Bollywood production, Patten took a while to get used to working in India. 'But then I had so much fun,' she says. 'It was such an enriching experience and I had such a great time, it was all worth it.'

Rang de Basanti (Paint it Yellow) proved rewarding. The movie set box office records in India and elsewhere when it opened late last month; the soundtrack, composed by A.R. Rahman, is still topping Indian charts. And the movie has garnered praise for its director Rakesh Omprakash Mehra and stars, including Aamir Khan, Siddharth and Patten. The DVD will be released in Hong Kong this week.

The youngest of the last Hong Kong governor Chris Patten's three daughters, the 26-year-old had set her sights on becoming an actress when she was at Island School. She has made a promising start. Her debut, two years ago, in a play at the Royal National Theatre has been followed by a variety of television and stage roles.

Bollywood, however, was never on the radar, until her agent sent her a script from Mumbai, translated from the Hindi original. The project would give her the chance to work with Khan, a Bollywood idol. But the deciding factor for her signing on to Rang de Basanti was the script.

'In fact, the key factor,' says Patten. 'The story was great. I think it's an important story to be told, rather political; and the character I was offered was strong, so it was just nice to be a part of something like that. The madness of going to India was exciting and terrifying. Who wouldn't want to do it?' A film within a film, Rang de Basanti weaves issues of the nation struggling for independence with those of contemporary India. A British director (Patten) decides to make a docu-drama based on the memoirs of her grandfather, a former police officer in colonial India caught in a clash with some freedom fighters he admires.