2015 - The year that this girl gets the chance to break into the UK music scene with my own brand of UK pop/soul, hand held tightly by my shiny new label, BrightStar Music. Exciting times, but when your dad's the lead singer in one of the UK's biggest Bollywood music bands, expectations at home had been very different.

Naturally, everyone assumed that I'd follow in my dad's footsteps, living Bollywood from my mumma's womb makes that a natural progression, but when you know something's not right for you, you just know!

Don't get me wrong, I love the glamour and sparkle of Bollywood just as much as the next girl, it's a magical world, but it's not my world. And boy have I had to fight to make people understand what this means for me.

The thing is though, if you fight for what you believe in, and do it well, your voice will eventually be heard! Not only heard, but most importantly, respected.

If you were a fly on the wall in my house when I was growing up... You'd quickly be forgiven for thinking that you were witnessing a real-life 'Bend It Like Beckham' situation! If it wasn't mum worrying about me being out playing football with my friends and being convinced I was a lesbian, not remotely interested in learning how to make round chapatti's, then it was my dad practising the latest Bollywood song for his next big show or tour. Life in the Ladwa household was far from conventional, that's for sure!

Growing up in Nottingham in a predominantly English area, I learnt about integration very early on, hanging out with all kinds of kids regardless of ethnicity or religion and I guess looking back, that was the start of defining the person that I've become and the outlook on life that I have.

In our house we didn't have Indian TV channels, my mum didn't wear a sari every day, and we didn't eat curry every night of the week!

My dad's best friend was a Jamaican guy and they were known in Nottingham for performing a song for which the first line was, 'so what a bad ba bad combination, cho, the black man and the indian, out of a many jaja (God) know we are one.' Again, summing up the kind of mentality that I was surrounded by.

So, I guess this leads to where I am today and what I truly think about the Asian culture, the Bollywood association, and living in Britain.

As one of the most thriving film industries in the world, what makes Bollywood so huge in Britain? Is it the bevy of male and female beauties? The fashion? Or is it the daring natures of these hugely successful actors and actresses that many of the young aspire to be like?

In what can be a restrictive culture, I think Bollywood has provided an inadvertent freedom of expression, a sense of escapism, and an invisible force that pushes the 21st century Asian guy or girl to push beyond their boundaries and dare to dream big.

The amount of times people look at me and say, 'wow, you could be in Bollywood, you're so beautiful', to which my response is, 'thank you' - of course it's so humbling, but why not Hollywood? Does the colour of our skin define us? Define who were are and what we're capable of? Does it really limit us to only have presence amongst 'our own'?

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