Iranian actress Maryam Zakaria is in the news for bagging a small role in the Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor-starrer Agent Vinod. She plays a character named Farah who is an international dancer from Afghanistan. This is her very first Bollywood film and she gets to perform a mujra with Kareena Kapoor and do a stunt scene with Saif Ali Khan in the film.

Chosen from about 1,000 girls who turned up for the audition, Maryam impressed the casting director with her dancing routine. But there is a major drawback if she wants to act seriously in Hindi films: Maryam knows no Hindi. But she's learning. The director of Agent Vinod, Sriram Raghvan, helped her with her dialogues and she dubbed her dialogues in Hindi.

Image: Maryam Zakaria in Agent Vinod