Five years since she forayed into Indian showbiz, Brit beauty Amy Jackson seems comfortable fitting in on the Indian screen. She has grown suitably “thick-skinned” too, she insists, and gossip does not affect her the way it did in the early days.
“I was 19 when I made my Bollywood debut with Ekk Deewana Tha, and all alone in Mumbai. I would be easily affected by all that was said or written about me. Now, I have grown thickskinned,” she laughs.
Those were the days when the media worked fulltime to garner spice over her liaison with Prateik Babbar, her foreign origin and struggle with the Hindi language. Amy, who carved out stardom in a short span, has learnt to adapt since then.
“As an actor I know it is my job to shape myself for a role-any role. It is my job to step into different characters In my new film I, (director) Shankar sir has totally turned me into an Indian girl,” says Amy, Miss Teen World 2009, who originally hails from the Isle of Man.
The pretty actress hopes “to learn Hindi as fast” as she honed her Tamil skills. “I have been in Chennai for four years now, and I know the language,” she points out.
Amy is back in the pan-Indian limelight thanks to her latest release I, Shankar’s latest mega-ambitious venture starring Vikram. The film is an update on the ‘Beauty And The Beast’ lore, and Amy calls it an “action thriller romance revenge story” made in a way only Shankar makes them.
She is looking forward to the audience’s reaction to her role of an international model. “I is bound to have an impact on my career. The script gave scope for drama, comedy and dance. I even shot action scenes with Vikram,” says Amy.
Her Bollywood debut Ekk Deewana Tha was a forgettable fare, which left Amy upset. “I did the film because I wanted to work with (director) Gautham Menon and because its Tamil original was a blockbuster. I have realised since then that I should not worry if a film is Bollywood or non-Bollywood. I was fated to start off in the South and so far the offers I have got in Tamil and Telugu cinema have been better. Personally, in the end of the day it is Indian cinema I am working in,” says Amy.
I, she says, was a learning process. “I got to work with Shankar, Vikram, A.R. Rahman and P.C. Sriram for two-andhalf years. I believe the film will be a milestone and I am proud to be a part of it,” concludes Amy, who is right now gearing up for her next film, an untitled venture opposite Dhanush.
