She's a white Liverpudlian who couldn't speak Hindi: So how did this English rose blossom into Bollywood's biggest star?
- She had never acted before her screen debut in 2010 film, Madrasapattinam
- Now Amy Jackson has a chauffeur, make-up team and a personal assistant
- 23-year-old gets thousands of letters from men declaring their undying love
- Newest movie 'I' is even attracting crowds in the UK where she is unknown
She is one of the hottest stars in Bollywood, currently seen shaking her sari next to a muscle-bound hunchback in the most expensive and ambitious film ever to come out of India.
She receives thousands of letters, most declaring undying love, many asking for her hand in marriage. She has a chauffeur, a make-up team and stylist, a cleaner, a cook and a personal assistant.
It is all the more surprising, then, that Amy Jackson, who was 23 yesterday, is a white girl from Liverpool with a girly Scouse accent more reminiscent of a cutesy five-year-old than a silver-screen sex siren.
Her extraordinary story has taken her from the quiet suburban streets of Walton in Liverpool to a jet-set life which means she is mobbed if she sets foot outside her limousine in Mumbai, Calcutta or Madras.
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Superstar: Amy Jackson (pictured) now has a chauffeur, a make-up team and stylist, a cleaner, a cook and a personal assistant
Origins: Amy Jackson (pictured at the Miss England final) has gone from humble beginnings in Walton, Liverpool to starring in blockbuster Bollywood films
Her new film, called I, is even pulling in crowds here in Britain where she is largely unknown.
Yet she freely admits that her film career is a matter of pure chance: she had done no acting at all before her 2010 debut and couldn't speak a word of Hindi.
That didn't seem to bother leading Bollywood director A. L. Vijay, who happened upon Amy's modelling picture after she won the Miss Teen World beauty contest at the age of 17 in 2009. They met in London two months later and he offered her the lead role in his 2010 movie Madrasapattinam.
'I'd never acted in my life,' she says. 'A. L. Vijay asked if I could dance and I just said yes. I didn't tell him the only dancing I had done was on nights out in Liverpool. He said he would arrange workshops and help me with the scripts and the language. He liked the fact that I was English but had an Indian look.'
So, just before she turned 18, Amy and her mother, Marguerita, a horse-riding instructor, found themselves in India meeting other actors and trying on costumes. Amy recalls: 'I'd never been to India or anywhere like it.
'There were cows wandering through the city. In the car on the way to the hotel I noticed Mum was grabbing on to the sides as we went in and out of traffic with the horn beeping. At one point a cow crossed the road in front of us and she screamed.'
Then she had to get used to the food. 'At the start I couldn't eat anything. I didn't like the spice. I loved having Indian take-aways on a Friday night in Liverpool but it's so different in the real India.'
While her friends spent their Saturdays getting 'curly blow drys' at the local hairdresser before hitting the town, Amy was working 20-hour days in Madras, trying to learn the language.
Rise to stardom: Amy (left) freely admits her fame is a result of pure chance and she had never acted before her screen debut in 2010
Big hit: Her new film 'I' is even attracted crowds in UK where she is a relative unknown as an actress
'When my friends phoned before going out, I'd be sat in my caravan on set with Mum learning Tamil,' she says.
'We had a TV but it just played Indian shows so we didn't watch it. I was so jealous and homesick.' That all changed when Madrasapattinam became the biggest movie hit of 2010.
It turned Amy into an overnight star and the offers of more roles flooded in. This year alone she will star in no fewer than four Indian movies – and she has turned down nine other offers.
Amy was so much in demand that she didn't even have to audition for the part of Diya in the much anticipated I.
But it hasn't all been plain sailing for Amy who has experienced racist abuse from a minority unhappy with her being cast as an Indian woman.
On social media and website forums, they demanded to know what this 'foreigner', this 'fake' and 'fluke actress' who 'can't even speak Hindi' was doing in an Indian film.
'Everyone has an opinion,' she says warily. 'For me, as an actress you are playing a character and to play that character you have to get into that mindset. I don't think it's any disrespect to any race. If people enjoy your movies that's the most important thing.'
I is Amy's fifth Indian movie and is directed by Shankar Shanmugham, the country's answer to Steven Spielberg. Loaded with special effects, it took her three years to make – and takes audiences three hours to watch.
It tells the story of a top model (Amy) who enlists the help of a local body builder (Chiyaan Vikram). The pair fall in love before he is deliberately infected with a hideous virus and turns into a gruesome hunchback. He then seeks revenge on the people who ruined his life.
Her south Indian voice was dubbed on to the pictures, but she did learn her lines in Tamil, an official language of India, so that her lips would be in sync.
She says the director wanted to make her look very Indian. 'Even my mannerisms had to change. I was very soft and gentle, and a typical south Indian lady. I wore brown contact lenses, which is crazy because all the big Bollywood stars wear green ones.'
Amy now splits her time between her sister's home in London and her two-bedroom, apartment overlooking the Arabian Sea in Bandra, Mumbai. Because of the crowds she attracts, she is flanked by two burly bodyguards, Adrian and Max, wherever she goes in India.
She has one male assistant ('he wakes me up in the mornings and makes all my juices for me'), two hair and make-up people, one stylist, a driver and a housekeeper ('she helps with the cooking and cleans but Mum doesn't like it. One time I walked in and they were both cleaning the floor together').
She insists she loves her 'gipsy' life but does admit that being able to pop to the shops to buy a pint of milk or walk to the postbox to send a letter when she is in the UK is a novelty.
'I don't really do any of that over there,' Amy says describing how she draws a crowd from the moment she steps off the plane when she returns to Mumbai.
'It's like two different worlds. Everything is calm at home and I'm just Amy.'
When she arrives in India, however, she finds she is mobbed.
'The attention I get is unbelievable. People come up for pictures and autographs. They see that you're out in the crowd and then you can't move.
'You stop and take selfies with them. I love it to some extent, but on your days off it can be a bit much. I've probably had more than 1,000 letters from India since the film opened.
'A lot of the letters are from guys declaring their undying love. I do get marriage proposals – not official ones, obviously. They say, 'We've watched the film six, seven or eight times.' That's dedication!'
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