Before they shot to stardom, many Bollywood actresses started out as beauty queens or models.
Think Miss World 1994 Aishwarya Rai, Miss World 2000 Priyanka Chopra or Miss Universe 1994 Sushmita Sen, all of whom went on to become some of Bollywood's most sought-after stars.
Now, the Hindi-language film industry is seeing a new breed of wannabes whose resumes are not quite as impressive as those of Rai, Chopra or Sen.
They have impressive "assets", though. They are all well-known porn stars.
In this pool of newbies are names like Sunny Leone, Shanti Dynamite and Priya Anjali Rai.
Dynamite and Rai will make their debut only next year. (See report on facing page.)
But Leone, 32, is a more familiar face on the mainstream big screen.
The sexy Indian-Canadian babe, whose real name is Karenjit Kaur Vohra, landed her first lead role last year as - surprise! - porn star Izna in erotic thriller Jism 2, the sequel to the Amit Saxena-directed Jism (2003) which starred Bipasha Basu and John Abraham.
Jism 2, helmed by director Pooja Bhatt and starring a lesser known cast, received mixed to negative reviews.
Made for $1.4 million, it earned about $7 million at the Indian box office after three weeks, a meagre amount compared to big budget Bollywood films.
Leone is also starring in comedy-thriller Jackpot, playing a casino manager called Maya. It is set for release in India on Dec 13.
She is set to appear in newbie director Bhushan Patel's horror film Ragini MMS 2, which will open on March 21 and stars B-listers Parvin Dabas and Sandhya Mridul.
But before her crossover to Bollywood, Leone started out doing lesbian adult scenes when she signed a three-year contract with US pornographic film production company Vivid Entertainment in 2005.
After renewing her contract in 2007, she agreed to do sex scenes with men as well.
Leone, whose vital statistics are apparently 34-24-34 with DD-cup breasts post-surgery, was even named one of the 12 top porn stars in 2010 by men's magazine Maxim.
Her emergence in Bollywood has naturally been met with scorn in India.
When Jism 2 was released, W Magazine reported that film posters were set on fire on the streets and detractors threatened to throw eggs at her when she appeared at the premiere.
Anti-porn campaigners even called for her to be jailed when pornography was under scrutiny following horrifying sexual assaults on women and children in the country earlier this year.
But Leone, who is married to US director-producer and musician Daniel Weber, thinks she is more liked than it is made out to be. "I think the people in India who love me outnumber those who hate me," she told The Times of India in October.
On her move to Bollywood, she told W Magazine: "It has been absolutely amazing. I've been here for two years now and I thank God that I've been given this opportunity. I've been working very hard to be here."
On starring in Jackpot, where she has been given bold scenes, she told reporters at the trailer launch in Mumbai in an IBN Live report: "Each one of my hot scenes is sexy and beautiful. Unfortunately, sometimes sexiness gets confused with how much skin you show.
"In my eyes, sexiness comes from how you act and how you dress. It's not about how much skin you show."
Porn stars mocked
Said Singaporean stand-up comedienne Sharul Channa, 26: "It's very hard to make it big there, especially in the film industry.
"It's unfortunate that rather than pure talent, they get in easily because of how they look. Sex sells."
Ms Channa went to Mumbai three years ago when she was offered a role in a television show. But she rejected it and returned to Singapore.
She said that these actresses get easily "typecast into sexy roles" and "the movies (they star in) usually flop".
Performing arts programmer Nur Khairiyah Ramli, 26, an avid fan of Bollywood movies, said that these "Z-listers" cheapen the industry.
"It doesn't fit in the standard template of song-and-dance and a good storyline in the usual Bollywood fare. If the point is sex, it should be a Hollywood film."
"It's a gimmick to sell films and only new directors will work with them. Established ones probably won't."
Giving Sunny a run for her money
SHANTI DYNAMITE, 22
1. Born Sofia Vasileiadou, the British Indian-Greek adult actress hosts adult chat shows in the UK and heads her own production company that makes Indian adult music videos.
2. She started out as a glamour model on UK-based topless show Hotel Voyeur. On being asked what inspired her to enter Bollywood, Shanti revealed that it was Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan's films.
3. She will be in a dance sequence in her Bollywood debut, comedy-thriller Chal Doctor Doctor Khelein which is slated for release next year.
PRIYA ANJALI RAI, 35
1. This Indian-American actress was a stripper for 12 years before she entered the porn industry in 2007.
2. Before she announced her retirement from the porn industry in June this year, she was named No. 19 in Complex magazine's list of Top 100 Hottest Porn Stars (Right Now) in 2011 and No. 32 in its list of The 50 Prettiest Porn Stars of All Time in 2010.
3. She tweeted this year that she would be "playing the lead role in India's first 4-D stereoscopic feature film". Although no details are firmed up, its producer Asokan PK said there will not be any nudity in the film, "only a few intimate scenes".
Get The New Paper for more stories.
