Parminder Nagra in Bend it Like Beckham

London, June 25: Parminder Nagra, star of Bend It Like Beckham and now seen all over the world as the stethoscope-carrying Dr Neela Rasgotra in the American hospital soap ER, is to be awarded an honorary degree by Leicester University, it was announced today.

She will don colourful robes and be honoured on July 11 alongside such luminaries of the academic world as Michael Atiyah, who succeeded Amartya Sen as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, and later became chancellor of Leicester University.

“All the people who are being honoured have Leicester connections,” a spokesman for the university pointed out.

He added that names of possible candidates for honorary degrees are submitted to a high-powered committee which makes the final decisions.

Robert Burgess, vice-chancellor of Leicester University, said: “Many of our honorary graduands have special connections with the university, the city or the county, and all of them are an inspiration to our students.”

Parminder, who shifted to Los Angeles when recruited to the cast of ER, is a Sikh who was born in Leicester on October 5, 1975, to first generation Punjabi parents.

Having started in British Asian theatre, she is now regarded as one of Britain’s most talented young actresses.

It will be recalled that Amitabh Bachchan was honoured last year by De Montfort University, Leicester, which is not to be confused with Leicester University. The latter has decided not to follow the Bollywood route but pick a local girl made good.

After the orator, Gordon Campbell, has read his citation, explaining why “Ms Parminder Nagra, film, stage and television actress” was being awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters, she will have to take on one of her most daunting roles — in a packed hall, she will be required to respond in a substantive manner.

Parminder, long known as “Mindi” to friends who have grown up with her on the British Asian theatre circuit, somehow seemed different to them after she returned last year to Britain from Los Angeles where she now lives.

Gone was the simple girl of yesteryear who was happy like everyone else to travel by bus. In her place, there was a more confident young woman with a stylish haircut and expensive clothes. For a girl born to parents who had done manual work in factories, her rise reflected all that was best about the British dream. And when she had made her name in Britain, she was seduced away by the Americans.

Although Parminder earns millions of dollars playing a stereotypical role as an Indian doctor in an American soap, her best performances have been for Tamasha, the British Asian theatre company.

When Tamasha did Tainted Dawn in 1997 to mark the 50th anniversary of Partition, the slightly-built Parminder played a Hindu boy accidentally left in the new Pakistan by parents fleeing across the border to India. Some think this has been her best role to date.

When Gurinder Chadha picked Parminder in 2002 to play the football crazy Jesminder (“Jess”) Bhamra in Bend It Like Beckham, the actress was one of three people who won international recognition — the others were Keira Knightley and Archie Panjabi.

Her friends would like Parminder to return to her roots in British Asian theatre but joke: “We couldn’t afford her now.”