Growing up in Long Eaton, London, Ram Asra and his younger brother Surjit Kumar dreamed of starring in the lavish musicals churned out by the hundreds on Mumbai movie sets. So the sons of immigrants devised a plan, opening a fish-and- chips joint that became an instant hit with locals. With cash in hand but no showbiz connections, the elder brother boarded a flight to India to pursue his boyhood dream, writes Jill Lawless

　　Ram Asra, Bollywood leading man, lifts a tray of golden french fries from a pan of sizzling oil. "Curry sauce?" he asks.

　　Thirty-year-old Asra, star of the Indian musical "Hum Hain Pyaar Mein" ("We are in Love"), is one of dozens of young actors making his name in the booming Mumbai film industry, which turns out 800 films a year. But he's probably the only one who works in an English fast food outlet - and the only one whose rise to fame was fueled by fried fish.

　　"Without this place I wouldn't beswheresI am," said Asra, swabbing down the counter of his family's fish-and-chip shop in Long Eaton, a gray factory town northwest of London. "Whatever I've achieved in my life so far was because of the family business."

　　He's not exaggerating. Profits from the tiny chip shop funded Asra's lifelong dream - a long-shot, improbably successful assault on the Mumbai film industry.

　　Growing up the movie-mad sons of Indian immigrants to Britain, Asra and his younger brother Surjit Kumar dreamed of starring in the lavish musicals churned out by the Mumbai dream factory.

　　"We always had a passion for watching Hindi films," said Asra. "We'd bring home the videos and watch them 10 times, 15 times. We imagined one day we'd be in them."

　　Long Eaton - a gray former mill town 190 kilometers northwest of London best known for its history of lace manufacturing - is a long way from India's bustling film capital. The town has produced a prize-winning brass band and a couple of professional soccer players, but no movie stars.

　　But as he finished high school and went to work in a supermarket, Asra was undeterred.

　　He and his brother - who doubles as his manager - developed a plan. In 1993, they bought a chip shop in the center of town and began serving up deep-fried fish, sausages, fritters and meat pies to the residents of Long Eaton.

　　Three years later, with business booming, Asra set off for Mumbai while Kumar stayed behind to keep the home fryer burning.

　　Asra arrived in the city of 14 million with no acting experience, no film-industry contacts and no knowledge of Hindi, the language of Bollywood films.

　　"I was scared when I sat on the plane," said Asra, offering guests tea and Indian sweets in the living room of his family's tidy suburban house. "I was going to India for the first time in 15 years, and I was the first person in my family to go to Mumbai. I had no friends there, no connections, nothing. For the first month and a half I didn't even get out of my room, I was that scared."Soft-spoken but doggedly determined, Asra enrolled in acting school, slowly made contacts and eventually got modeling and commercial work, starring in ads for jeans and Coca-Cola. Funded by profits from the chip shop, he hired a tutor to teach him Hindi, took dancing lessons and learned to ride a horse.

　　"I couldn't have done it on my own. Mumbai is an expensive place to live - going to parties, acting classes, assembling a portfolio," Asra said. "My family really supported me. Basically the whole family struggled. If I was on my own, I don't think I would have made it. You can struggle all you want but if you don't have money, you won't succeed.

　　"People were telling me, 'Why are you wasting your time? Go back - you have a good business back there.' But I never let it knock me off my track. I always believed in myself."

　　Asra certainly looks the part of the romantic lead. The family home is scattered with promotional pictures showing off the actor's smoldering brown eyes and carefully groomed stubble. His soft-spoken manner reveals little of his tenacity and self-confidence.

　　"I never had second thoughts," he said. "When you have a dream, if you have second thoughts, you might as well pack your bags and go."

　　The work finally paid off when Asra was cast in "We are in Love." The film was released last December to positive reviews. It's typical Bollywood froth, a boy-meets-girl melodrama with glowering villains and exuberant dance numbers.

　　"The girl's rich, the guy's poor and they have a family problem," Asra said. "It's a very emotional film, and it's got good music."Asra starts work soon on a new film with Kesar Matharu, who directed "We are in Love."Asra recalls with a touch of wonder the exact number of people - 951 - who attended a screening of the film in Mumbai.

　　"At the interval they had to take me to sit in the manager's office, because people will really grab you," he said. "Afterwards all these people gathered round my car, staring."

　　But when he marries, he says, he wants to raise a family in Long Eaton. He returns home several times a year to help his brother and four sisters in the shop.

　　"The customers are really happy for us. They say, 'You've put Long Eaton on the map.' They come in and have a laugh with us," said Asra.

　　Kumar, who runs the chip shop as well as managing his brother's career, is happy with his side of the bargain.

　　"I love this place," he said, gazing lovingly at the shop's gleaming counters and deep-fat fryer. "It's in the blood now. It's like a family member. I'd never sell it."