The Team behind TMOS:

From the team behind Bend It Like Beckham and Bride & Prejudice comes The Mistress of Spices. Three continents, a directorial debut, the Queen of Bollywood, a Hollywood star and a large sprinkling of magical spices, all come together to create this mystical tale of identity, tradition and forbidden desire.

The Mistress of Spices began its life as a novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni back in 1997. When Director Paul Mayeda Berges and his writing partner Gurinder Chadha first read the novel they both instantly fell in love with the story and knew that it would translate beautifully to the big screen. They met with Chitra and began working on turning it into a screenplay. As Paul Mayeda Berges explains he saw within the novel a fresh twist on an age old theme "culturally it was all about the things we're interested in, the way people mix and how much smaller the world is these days and how you start a new life when you emigrate somewhere, but, it had this layer of magical realism which I hadn't seen done in a film like this before." Several years later, with the help of Producing partner Deepak Nayar, The Mistress of Spices was ready to go into production.

More about the cast, especially for those who don't know much about its International cast:

Aishwarya Rai - Tilo

OK, nobody needs an intro to the lovely Ash, but for othe record, here are just two sentences on our beautiful superstar! 2004 saw Aishwarya take on the leading role in Gurinder Chadha's cross cultural box office hit "Bride & Prejudice". She also became the first Indian female to be immortalized in wax at the world famous Madame Tussaud's wax museum in London.

Dylan McDermott - Doug

Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Dylan McDermott has successfully forged a diverse and lengthy career that has made him one of America's most popular actors. It has seen him star on Broadway, capture the hearts of millions in top rated television shows and gain critical acclaim in a number of cinematic roles. Born in Connecticut and raised in New York , Dylan was first introduced to the world of acting by step-mother Eve Ensler (writer of the infamous hit play "The Vagina Monologues"). He flourished while getting his drama degree at Fordham University and graduated from the prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse in New York .

Dylan's film career began back in 1987 when he starred in John Irvin's "Hamburger Hill". He went on to be featured in a series of box office hits varying from Clint Eastwood's "In the Line of Fire" to John Hugh's " Miracle on 34th Street" and more recently James Cox's "Wonderland". In 1995 Empire Magazine chose him as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history and in 1998 People Magazine voted him as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world. From 1997 till 2003 Dylan could be seen in David E. Kelley's Emmy Award-winning series " The Practice" where he became a household name as idealistic defense attorney Bobby Donnell.

Upcoming films include the release of David J. Burke's 'Edison ' where he stars alongside Kevin Spacey and the Pang Brother's as yet Untitled Horror Project for Sony and Ghost House Pictures.

Nitin Ganatra - Haroun

While he has appeared in Anthony Minghella's Truly, Madly, Deeply and Mike Leigh's award-winning Secrets & Lies, it was in fact Gurinder Chadha's Bride & Prejudice where Nitin took on his first major film role. He has previously focused on working in theatre - including working with Sam Mendes and the Donmar Warehouse, and garnered great reviews for his television work in The Canterbury Tales. He can soon be seen in Brian W. Cook's Colour Me Kubrick and Tim Burton's Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.

Anupam Kher - Geeta's Grandfather

Born in 1955, Anupam is a veteran of the Hindi film industry with over 300 films to his credit. Anupam debuted in Saraansh in1984 for director, Mahesh Bhatt. Over his career, he has won 8 Filmfare awards, the Indian equivalent to the Oscar®, as well as numerous other awards. Anupam stared as Parminder Nagra's father in the world-wide smash hit, Bend it Like Beckham and as Aishwarya Rai's father in Gurinder Chadha's follow-up film, Bride & Prejudice. He is chairman of the National School of Drama in India, as well as chairman of India's Film Censor Board. He has been awarded India's highest civilian honor, the Padam Shri, for his contribution to cinema and theatre. He also is probably one of the few actors in the world to have performed his own autobiography on stage.