Toby Stephens says his Bollywood experience has been frightening, especially the part about actors in India being treated as gods.

The 35-year-old actor has just finished filming for the Aamir Khan starrer The Rising. He plays William Gordon, a Scottish officer who joins the Indian Mutiny. Gordon is a commanding officer and friend to Aamir's character, Mangal Pandey.

The British actor -- who played the villain in the last Bond flick, Die Another Day -- said his lines in English, Hindi and Urdu.

Directed by Ketan Mehta and produced by Bobby Bedi (Bandit Queen, Saathiya, Maqbool), The Rising also stars Rani Mukerji and Amisha Patel.

Stephens is the son of the venerable British actress Dame Maggie Smith (who plays Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter series) and the late actor-director Sir Robert Stephens. He married New Zealand actress Anna-Louise Plowman in 2001.

Stephens, who is very close to his mother, is quoted as saying in London's The Sunday Times, 'It's from her that I inherited my practical sense of what acting is.'

Photograph: Getty Images