TAKE a closer look at this Bollywood star's face.

Soon, it will be the face that launches India's first Barbie doll.

Former model Katrina Kaif has been chosen as the model for India's first Barbie doll, which goes into production in September, said The Daily Telegraph.

The English newspaper said Ms Kaif felt 'honoured' to be chosen as the face of the doll, which marks Mattel Toys' 50th anniversary.

The north Londoner has a mixed parentage of a Kashmiri father and English mother.

She beat her closest rival, Aishwariya Rai Bacchan, in snagging the Barbie contract.

Her success now - she has had a string of hit Bollywood movies - is a far cry from when she started out seven years ago in Mumbai.

Then, she could not speak Hindi, sing or dance.

Her first movie was a critically panned crime caper called Boom, in which she shocked conservative Indian audiences by stripping down to her bra for one steamy scene.

But she reinvented herself to play girlfriends in commercial films.

Since then, she has been the female lead in 10 movies, including six Hindi films since 2007 and was voted most popular Bollywood celebrity in Google's 2008 India Zietgeist list.

This article was first published in The New Paper