The Funny Pages.

Indian actress Aishwarya Rai is girding herself for a first on-screen kiss as she seeks to crossover from Bollywood to Hollywood.

Rai, a former Miss World who is arguably Hindi cinema's best-known face, has appeared in two dozen movies but has never actually kissed on screen.

On-screen lip-play remains a rarity in mainstream Indian cinema, but with Rai looking to break into Hollywood, she knows that love scenes would be an inevitable part of her film future.

"We'll cross the bridge when we reach it," Rai told the CBS network's 60 Minutes program in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday.

"Let's see. We'll work on the story, work on the scene. I'll work on the part," she said.

Rai's debut international film, Bride and Prejudice, shot in Hindi and English, opens in US cinemas early next year.

The film, directed by Gurinder Chadha who scored a major success with her last crossover outing Bend it Like Beckham, received a lukewarm response on its release in India's film capital Bombay.

In her CBS interview, Rai acknowledged that her first screen kiss, should she do it, would create a minor scandal among her legions of fans, especially in India.

"It would definitely be a topic of discussion," Rai said. "They're going to enjoy (talking about it)."

Rai, 30, said Indian society was not prudish, but just not given to public displays of intimacy.

"In our society, you don't really see people around the street corner kissing or being extremely or overtly physically demonstrative," she said.

(c) AFP