Bollywood glamour girl Aishwarya Rai become the first Indian Bond girl?

Two Bollywood actresses are vying to be the first Indian Bond girl as rumours spread that the next 007 film will be shot in the country.

Producers of the film, expected to be directed by Sam Mendes, have been scouting locations in India.

The plot is believed to be set in Afghanistan in landscapes similar to India's Rajasthan deserts and the arid mountains of Ladakh, close to the border with Tibet.

In 1983 the Bond film Octopussy featured the Indian tennis player Vijay Amritraj in a plot centred on a cult of "octopus" women on a floating island in Udaipur, the "city of lakes" in Rajasthan in western India.

Last week Freida Pinto, who played Latika in the Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, was linked to the new film in which Daniel Craig will play 007. Her latest film, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, directed by Woody Allen, will be released later this year. She is to be the face of L'Oreal cosmetics and is believed to be India's highest paid film star.

Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World and India's most successful actress, was also in the frame, friends told an Indian newspaper. They said Rai, 36, was better suited to the role because of her vast experience in Bollywood and Hollywood. She recently appeared in Pink Panther 2 with Steve Martin and made her name outside India in Bride and Prejudice.

Aged 25 and recently listed as one of the world's most beautiful women by People magazine, Pinto would appear to fit the age and beauty profile.

While Rai is 11 years older, her friends reminded her Indian fans she was once described as the "most beautiful woman in the world" by Julia Roberts.

A spokesman for Eon, the film's producers, declined to comment.