A £101,500 cheque for British comedian Meera Syal will provide seed money for new film projects involving ethnic Indian themes.

Syal is best known in Britain for the television series Goodness Gracious Me and The Kumars at No 42, which poke
fun at Indian immigrants by satirising their accents, life styles and value systems.

She also wrote the autobiographical Anita and Me, which was made into a film, and scripted Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical, Bombay Deams.

Confirming the award from the UK Film Council, Syal said, "I was one of the few people the Film Council generously donated money to. I am absolutely thrilled. The £101,500 I have been given is for the research and development of my next project. It is in early stages. I can't spill the beans at this point."

Jenny Borgars, who heads the Film Council's Development Fund, said the financial support for Anita and Me and Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham confirmed there was great potential for ethnic productions.

"Meera is a fantastic talent. We are delighted to be working with her on her latest project. We look forward to seeing the finished film," she said. "The Development Fund is committed to investing in films that appeal to the broadest possible audience and, more specifically, to putting Asian stories on the big screen."

Syal has been spotted filming her new project close to London's Heathrow airport. Media experts have speculated that she is working on a film based on the sabotage of the Air-India plane, Kanishka, which crashed into the Irish Sea on June 23, 1985.

In a separate development, Syal's co-actress from the Goodness Gracious Me series, Nina Wadia reveals she is helping Syal in a theatre production. Wadia says the play, Bollywood -- Yet Another Love Story, promises to bring the Mumbai experience to British audiences.

The play has its roots in Wadia's earlier experience of the comedy circuit when she participated in a three minute routine about Bollywood with actor-director Pravesh Kumar. "It raised a storm with audiences. We then decided to put together a piece for a theatre show," she says.

"Pravesh wrote a play, but I was filming for Goodness Gracious Me at the time and wasn't able to take part in the show in 2000. I was then asked to come aboard for this year's production and help out with the script."