"I couldn't believe it. I'd never acted in my life - I didn't even know I could act," said the teenager, from Woolton, Liverpool.  "Beauty pageants are big over in India so the director saw me on the competition website. He liked that I was white but had an Indian look so he tracked me down."  Within a month, she was whisked off to film in the teeming Indian cities of Chennai and Hyderabad.  "The cast and crew made me so welcome. I was worried about the language barrier but everyone made such an effort with me I settled in fine," she said.  "Filming was so nerve-wracking though. I'm used to modelling shoots where there's about ten people on set, but I had to act in front of hundreds of cast and crew members.  "That's real pressure when you've never acted before. But it was amazing working with A L Vijay because he is so passionate about his work. This film was his dream and I feel honoured that he chose me to help him fulfill it."  The film is set in the pre-independence India of the 1940s and tells the love story of a Madrasi man, played by Bollywood star Arya, and the British daughter of the governor of Madrasapattinam.  The film topped the Bollywood box office on its release last month, making former Miss Jackson an instant superstar.  She recalled: "At the film premier in Chennai, as soon as my character came on the screen, the audience went wild cheering and clapping.  "We did a promotional tour across India and everywhere we went there were thousands of screaming fans at every venue.  "It's so crazy, it's like two different worlds. Everything is calm at home and I'm just Amy, then when I go to India I get mobbed.  "Now I get at least 150 emails from fans every day."  Having admitted that she would not have considered switching to acting until much later in her career, Miss Jackson is now a Bollywood convert.  She added: "Acting is my job now and I take it very seriously. I've been reading through some Bollywood scripts and I'll definitely do another film."  With her Bollywood stardom cemented, Amy is now looking ahead to her next challenge - the Miss England final on 1st September.  "It's my dream to win Miss England so I'm completely focused on that right now," she said.
A British teenager has become a Bollywood star after landing the lead role in    the latest Indian blockbuster despite never having acted before.