Ileana D’Cruz is agog with excitement over having bagged the coveted assignment to play the lead opposite Saif Ali Khan in Shivam Nair’s biopic on Uzma Ahmed and her traumatic experience and eventual rescue from her fraud Pakistani husband. The film also is about the story of a diplomat in the Indian Embassy who handles the whole case and also helps Uzma Ahmed overcome her trials and tribulations and the Union Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ileana and Saif are slated to play the lead roles in the film.
Ileana D’Cruz made her debut in Hindi films with Anurag Basu’s Barfi in which she was teamed opposite Ranbir Kapoor.
Ileana was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra as the second child to her parents Ronaldo and Samira. She has three siblings – older sister Farrah, younger brother Rhys and youngest sister Eileen. Her first name comes from Greek mythology. Ileana has fond memories of Goa as while growing up, she lived in Goa for about seven years. During that time, the manager of the hotel her mother was working in suggested that she should start 
modeling and fixed a meeting with actor Marc Robinson. Though initially reluctant, the good looking teenager was persuaded and her first portfolio was created in January 2003, which she described as a “disaster”. She began gaining notice through photo shoots and ramp shows and her second portfolio was set up the following year, which landed her three advertisements from Electrolux, Emami Talc and Fair and Lovely. The latter, in particular, which was directed by Rakesh Roshan, gave her exposure and brought in several offers for acting in feature films.Born on November 1, Ileana D’Cruz established herself in a very short time predominantly in Telugu cinema, after starting her career as a model, when she made her feature film debut in Y.V.S. Chowdhary’s 2006 Telugu film Devadasu. Since then the beautiful girl has not looked back at all and has been a part and parcel of successful films like Pokiri (2006), Jalsa (2008) and Kick and has bagged quite a number of awards for acting including Filmfare awards, including the Best Debutant award for her performance in Barfi!
