Indian beauties fall for 'firangs'

Interracial marriages are still a rarity in India. However, as India opens up to the world the Indian women too are tying the marital knot with men who differ from them in race, nationality and faith. Let's have a look. The latest romance of cross-border relationship is that of tennis sensation Sania Mirza is all set to enter into wedlock with Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik in April, two months after she broke her engagement with childhood friend Sohrab Mirza.

Shweta Keswani and her half-Irish-half-Dutch boyfriend Alex O'Neil married after seeing each other for four years. The couple tied the knot in four different styles, a court marriage, a Buddhist marriage, a Hindu marriage and a white wedding.

Amrita Arora and Pakistan-born, London-bred cricketer Usman Afzal's four-year relationship came to an end. Supposedly, before breaking-up their relationship was going through rough weather and distance was said to be the main reason of their split and the decision to part ways, apparently, was unanimous.

When veejay-turned-actor Suchitra Pillai started seeing Denmark-based environmental engineer Lars Kjeldsen, they were in a long-distance relationship. However, when marriage happened, Mumbai became their base.

Kiram Mazumdar Shaw, Chief Executive Officer of Biocon and the richest women in India, married her American husband, John Shaw six years ago. (AFP/Indranil Mukherjee)

Super model Madhu Sapre married Italian Gian Maria and currently lives with her husband in Italy.

Neena Gupta had a short but a serious relationship with Caribbean cricketer, Sir Vivian Richards, with whom she has a daughter Masaba. Though there love story could not carry on for long as Richard was already a married man, but without any social stigma Neena decided to follow her heart and gave birth to her daughter. Till date, it is believed the Richard visits mother and daughter once in a year.

Padma Lakshmi married novelist Salman Rushdie on April 17, 2004. But unfortunately, the couple filed for divorce on July 2, 2007. Padma Lakshmi was always way too hot for Salman Rushdie, besides being 23 years his junior. (REUTERS/Phil McCarten)

Yet another example of cross border love story is that of the gorgeous Ayesha Thapar and Turkish billionaire Engin Yesil. Born into the illustrious Thapar dynasty, Ayesha was probably one of the most sought after women in the country when she married Engin, twice her age and moved to Miami. Though she credits Engin for the success in her life, their marriage lasted only two years.