STEVE SINGH (Bobby Deol)
Steve Singh is the immensely rich and treacherously handsome joint partner of London's reputed Singh & Smith Law firm. Steve is the man's man... the man about town... powerful, intense and very self-effacing... Born to a British Mum and Punjabi Dad, he's a balance of Punjabi impulse - not thinking twice before heroically saving Alvira's life - and he's got suave ritzy genteel from his Brit Mum. Classy. Seemly. Chivalrous. That's Steve.
He has a palace for an office matched only by Mandrake's Xanadu. And wears those dashing suits and up-market cuts like Bruce Wayne. What's more... one meeting and he seemed to know everything about Alvira ' her religious rituals, where she worked, her pet name... Is he Clark Kent or Superman? He even seems to appear and disappear at will... Yes... That's Steve.
He has those natty rugged looks... a scar on his cheek that he got while rescuing a girl who was being forced to dance... But even that Steve doesn't wear on his sleeve. He's Alvira's knight in shining armour... her millionaire lover... her hero...
ALVIRA KHAN (Preity Zinta)
Picture a three foot six inch girl. She stands alone in the middle of a church. Merely six years old, Alvira Khan takes an oath before God. "I'll never marry a brownie kaalakalutaa. Please find me a good-looking gora boy like yourself. Amen." Cut to 20 odd years later. Alvira is your typical Pakistani Brit. She would hate to acknowledge the Pakistani part... She's more Brit than the Queen herself.
Despite living in a ghettoized Lahori household, Alvira has that stiff upper lip attitude towards the riff-raff... especially those crass Southalliyas with their lack of polish and their over-friendliness. That job she has as Manager at the House of Fraser's is a godsend. She can hobnob with the hip Bond Streeters any time she likes... Yea, that's what she calls 'class'...
She has a princess personality and a virtually rebellious opinion of everything. And on a fated day at Madame Tussaud's, the princess is daringly rescued by her knight in shining armour... her prince Steve, who grabs her from under a falling Superman model... And she's swept off her feet, heels over head in love... Her dream come true!
