Pallavi Sharda shot to Bollywood fame as Ranbir Kapoors heroine in the 2013 film Besharam, and had a few other Hindi releases. However, she has been busy in the international scene with roles in Australian shows such as Retrograde and Pulse, and the British series Beecham House.

She is now ready for her new role in the upcoming Hollywood live action-animation adventure, Tom & Jerry.

Pallavi says the scene has certainly changed for people of colour, but it is still about pushing for roles that have a different gaze.

"It has definitely changed, it's definitely more possible to have a career in the West. I know that because I work solely in the West now," Pallavi said.

"It is still a matter of making that space and pushing to create roles that have a different gaze, in terms of the way that they are written. Making sure that storytelling is authentic, and that people of colour are not being used as plot devices," she added.

However, there is change for the better. "As an Indian Australian actress, I have been able to play vastly different roles in everything that I've done in the last few years, which is something that's actually extraordinary, because one thought of Indian actors in the past and thought they would always be playing a doctor or a certain archetype. But that's definitely not the experience of my career," she said.

Pallavi's next release Tom & Jerry Next is directed by Tim Story, and the film reloads the adventures of the mischievous duo of Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse. The Warner Bros. Pictures project opened in India this weekend, in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.