Bollywood babes go West

Some of Bollywood's most stunning women are fast swooshing to foreign film sets, and not just for filming songs.

Here's a look at four who are starring in upcoming international film projects:

Shilpa Shetty

Bollywood's most bodalicious, if reports are to be believed, may be headed to the hottest project of all. Babel stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal. But that's not the big deal.

The big deal is it being directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the man behind the pathbreaking Amores Perros and 21 Grams. Co-written by Inarritu and his long-time collaborator Guillermo Arriaga, the film is about the lives of four strangers in three continents.

Shilpa is slated to play the Indian, Sameera Bakshi. Mahima Chaudhury may play her sister, Sonia.

Aishwarya Rai

If you thought the last year saw a lot of foreign press for Ash, that was just a media blitz to toss her into the eyes of international casting directors.

The result? Doug Lefler's The Last Legion, with Colin Firth and Sir Ben Kingsley; Colin Serrau's Chaos, with Meryl Streep; and Roland Joff's Singularity, with Brendan Fraser.

Her Indo-foreign films include Jag Mundhra's Provoked, with Naveen Andrews and Nandita Das, and Paul Berges' Mistress Of Spices (left) with Dylan McDermott and Ayesha Dharker.

Phew!

Sameera Reddy

After a fantastic performance as a middle-class Bengali housewife in Buddhadeb Dasgupta's Kaalpurush, Sameera sure is making waves.

The Musafir girl has been offered the lead role of Nazneen in Sarah Gavron's adaptation of Monica Ali's bestselling novel, Brick Lane. The protagonist, like the novelist, is of Bangladeshi descent.

The film sounds like a terrific project, but commitments back home might just prevent Sameera from snapping it up. Nothing has been signed yet, but we can hope.

Nandana Sen

This one's doing more international stuff than desi.

First up, she stars in Willard Carrol's musical romance, Marigold, which also happens to be Salman Khan's Hollywood debut.

Then, there's Ajmal Zaheer Ahmad's crossover It's A Mismatch, with Boman Irani; Oscar-nominee Ashvin Kumar's thriller Forest, with Javed Jaffery and produced by Richard Dreyfus; and Rockin Meera, an American film that pits the actress into the world of hip-hop.

It's a big, intriguing list, with our actresses signing up quite a few interesting projects. Let's hope we get to see them soon.