How does a girl from Liverpool end up in Tamil and Hindi films?
You know, I keep asking myself this every single day Heather.  You have no idea.  You know it’s a crazy, crazy sort of whirlwind and until I actually see Ekk Dewaana Tha on screen in February, I won’t actually believe it’s happened.  The Tamil movie actually occurred in 2009 after I won the Miss Teen World pageant over in America and a film director saw me on the Miss Teen World website and travelled over to England to meet with me and told me he thought I would be the ideal person to play a heroine in his movie.  I said, “Look, you now I’ve never acted before and I’ve got no acting experience whatsoever.” and he said “No I’m really certain that this is the role for you.” and I was like “Ok, let’s do it then.” and I took the opportunity and it turned out fabulously.  It was the biggest hit in Tamil cinema the year it came out and basically that led me to this Bollywood debut now.

Do you speak Hindi or Tamil?

Not whatsoever.  I had to speak Hindi in Ekk Dewaana Tha but I didn’t actually know a word of Hindi so basically it was just a case of mimicking the lines, memorizing them and just getting the correct feeling and understanding what they meant   But now I’m actually learning Hindi.  I started Hindi lessons about a month ago and I’m also learning diction.  That’s my New Year’s resolution, to improve my Hindi.

Did you find there were any differences, other than language, working on a Hindi film set vs. a Tamil film set, other than language of course?
People have actually asked me this quite a lot frequently.  The actual temperatures, you know we shot in Chennai for the Tamil movie, were so hot it was unreal.  The hours are ridiculously long.  It was like, a good 18 hour day whereas in Bollywood, it never really exceeds the 12 hour shift and it was not as heavy and intense as the Tamil set was, and the temperature was a lot milder I must say.

Can you tell us a bit about your character in the upcoming film Ekk Dewaana Tha?
I play the character of Jessie and she is Christian Malayalam girl who moves to Mumbai.  She is basically from a family that is very orthodox, very conservative and anything like partying and falling in love with boys in completely out of the question.  It just doesn’t happen for Jessie.  So when she meets Sachin and it’s practically love at first sight, they are completely different characters who are attracted to each other.  So, it’s about first love and how they fall in love and what happens between them both.  It’s a very intense and emotional love story.

Did you and co-star Prateik play any pranks or run into any unusual situations on set?
We were constantly playing pranks on everyone.  Prateik is the biggest prankster.  One of my friends came over from the UK to visit on set and Prateik was constantly playing pranks on her and she didn’t know him too well so she would get quite upset with everything. But you know, he was great fun to work with.  We’re very good friends to this day you know.  We were filming for five months so I was happy to work with someone who I could have a laugh with and still really get into acting and be dedicated in our work with.  He’s a very talented actor.  So, you saw Dhobi Ghat? 


Yes, I did.  I saw it at the Toronto International Film Festival. 
Oh awesome! Oh fabulous!  You see that was the very first movie I saw Prateik in and when I saw it I went “Wow!  I can’t believe I’m going to get to work with this guy.”  It was a real privilege to work with him, it seriously was.

While working on a film, do you have a sense that these films are going to be seen all over the world including places like Toronto?
You know it actually really hasn’t hit me.  I’m still a bit in denial.  I don’t think I’m going to believe it until I see it on the big screen and Fox is such a huge production house and a world-wide company and people all over the world are going see this movie.  I get butterflies when I think about it, I really, really do.

What is your favourite song in the film?

You know, I’ve got two favourite songs.  I love Hosanna.   I think it’s probably the best track of A. R. Rahman’s on the CD but on a personal level, my favourite song is Sharminda Hoon.  It comes from the heart and really moves me.

What other projects do you have coming up?
Well, I’ve got three movies in the pipelines for this year.  My next movie is a Telugu movie, and then immediately after that I have a Tamil movie and then immediately after that I have another Bollywood movie.  So, it’s certainly going to be a busy year this year, which is nice.  It’s just going to be very challenging with the three different languages.


Thank you for taking the time to speak with us Amy, and we wish you all the best for Ekk Dewaana Tha and everything else you have coming up.
Thank you.  Thank you so much and take care.

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