FERENA AHMED
The Face In The Lens Eye
Born Ferena Wazir Ahmed - "I just go by Ferena though" - this 21-year-old Kashmiri Muslim has made swift inroads into the glamorous world of drama, modelling and films. Having studied communication, cultural and media studies - "My degree involved modules in feminist film theory, black cinema, social psychology, media and film production - and by her own admission 'no shy wallflower and a little narcissistic', Ferena preened happily before the camera for student projects. "When I made a film about the Massai tribe in Africa one summer vacation, I thought I wanted to be the next Jane Campion, but somewhere the acting bug started creeping in and my dreams changed shape."

The RADA student has done a few plays in Britain - Shakespeare and The Vagina Monologues. Back home, she has worked with Satyadev Dubey and Alyque Padamsee and is currently doing Unspoken Dialogues. "The immediacy of stage is scary and compelling."

She is has stimulating projects in her kitty - a project with Anurag Kashyap, a Hindi movie with Soni Razdan, a couple of South Indian movies, "one more exciting Hindi film and some international projects that I cannot talk about yet". What she can talk about though is an "assignment with writer/first-time director, Barnali Ray - an interesting drama set in contemporary India that looks at Ravana and Sita in a man-woman context".

Having moved to Mumbai to be where the action is, Ferena is "independent, warm, bubbly, a person of extremes, mercurial, hardworking and a little kooky". The best compliment she has received: "You remind me of Audrey Hepburn."