Sir Salman Rushdie has struck up a close friendship with a glamorous young actress renowned for her risqué Bollywood roles. The 61-year-old author, whose novel Midnight’s Children was last week voted the best ever Booker prize-winning novel, has invited calendar pin-up Riya Sen, 27, to New York after meeting her in January. Sir Salman, whose marriage to model Padma Lakshmi broke down last year, met Miss Sen through a mutual friend at a nightclub in Bombay. Since then, the pair are said to have been exchanging emails regularly, and friends of Miss Sen say that the author is ‘pursuing’ her. Miss Sen said: ‘We get on really well but we are just friends. I met him through a family friend.’ She confirmed she had been invited to New York but insisted: ‘No really, we are not an item.’ She added: ‘I have spoken to him a few times. I think when you are Salman Rushdie, you must get bored with people who always want to talk to you about literature. We didn’t talk about any of that.’