Born in Iran, brought up in Norway and educated in Australia, Nigar has built a prolific film and video career in India. But, she was deported by Mumbai Police in early February, because she did not possess the “proper employment visa,” which is a violation of the law. The controversy has sparked panic among foreign actresses as well as producers, some of whom had paid hefty advances and signing bonuses to her.

The Mumbai Police say that even though Khan is married to Indian actor Sahil Khan, she is not permitted to work as a model or actress in India, because she is on a tourist visa: “We have charged her with violation of visa act as her tourist visa does not entitle her to earn by acting in films, doing modeling or as an item girl doing video film albums.”

Khan acted in Vicky Tejwani’s Shadi Ka Laddu and Double Cross — Ek Dhokha, which was shot in Cape Town, South Africa, and London. She is the lead in Kumar Jai’s latest celluloid venture Shortcut. Since Khan was deported, Shortcut is on hold, prompting Kumar Jay to lament that her deportation has hit him financially hard.

Kumar Jai denounced the Mumbai Police action as “excessive,” protesting that a star of Khan’s stature should not have been expelled so unceremoniously. She was not permitted even to return home to pack her bags and was placed on the first available international flight out.

Mahesh Bhatt, the famous filmmaker, who faced visa problems with his South African actress Ilene Hamman earlier, also denounced Khan’s expulsion.

Bhatt said when Hamman came to India to perform in his films, the Foreign Citizen’s Registration Office of Mumbai Police was rude and heavy handed toward her.

Nigar Khan is the first foreign actress to be deported so publicly, even though foreigners have been acting in Bollywood films since 1971.

Only two of the foreign actresses, Khan and Yana Synkova Gupta, sought to settle in India, both marrying Indian actors. Both, however, are better known as models and video song album performers than for their Bollywood roles.

None of the foreign actresses, either present or the past, set the stage on fire, either in India or their home countries. The exception is Manisha Koirala, who is from Nepal. Few Indians identify her as a foreign actress, however, and India and Nepal allow citizens to move and work freely between their two countries. Moreover, Manisha studied in Varanasi and is often mistaken for an Indian actress, much like Mala Sinha decades earlier, who too was Nepalese and had studied in India.

The current invasion of foreign actresses began in 2000 when several began modeling and rocking in video song albums. They have proven successful in both industries, but haven’t quite hit their strides on the silver screens. However, Rachel Shelley, even though she spoke only English in Lagaan, was a brilliant success among Indian as was Katerina Kaif in Boom.