Madrasapattinam, starring Arya and Amy Jackson released in 2010. This marked Amy’s debut into films. Madarasapattinam also stars Nassar, Cochin Hanifa, Lisa Lazarus, and Alexx O’Nell who play other prominent roles. The romantic period action drama film, was written and directed by A. L. Vijay. G. V. Prakash Kumar composed the music was and Anthony did the editing. Nirav Shah was the cinematography. The film was later dubbed into Telugu and released in Andhra Pradesh as ‘1947: A Love Story’ and went on to become a box office success.
Director A. L. Vijay revealed that Madrasapattinam was supposed to happen later in his career, but the intervention of producer Kalpathi S. Aghoram helped realise the viability of the film earlier. Vijay had first explored the script in his college days and drew inspiration from an English professor who “used to talk to us about the freedom movement a lot,” furthering Vijay’s interest in history. He visualized the people who lived in the pre-independence period of India and explored the concept of how it would have been if an English girl fell in love with an Indian boy, laying the foundations for the script. The script took six months to write, with leading Tamil writer Prapanchan and visits to see independence veterans being helpful in understanding the history of the city of Madras between 1945 and 1947.
Madrasapattinam received generally positive reviews in Tamil Nadu. Indiaglitz wrote: “Away from the madding crowd of commercial clichés, Madharasapattinam is a film that would send positive vibes among those who love meaningful films.” Galatta.com wrote: “With a brilliant crew consisting of talents from India and abroad, Madharasapattinam transcends the language boundaries and takes Tamil cinema to the world arena!” Sify stated that the film was a “brave attempt on the part of its makers.” Arya and Amy Jackson received heavy praise for their roles in the movie, the latter in particular for her delivery of Tamil dialogues. The film launched Jackson into stardom in the Tamil film industry, and she continues to act in blockbuster movies across Tamil cinema. The film was praised for its cinematography, music, artwork, and direction.
In an interview with Times Of India, on the occasion of 10 years of Madrasapattinam, Vijay said, “I had been auditioning several girls for the role Amy played and in fact before knowing about Amy, I had even tried contacting the agents of actress Vanessa Hudgens.”He further revealed how he got to know about Amy Jackson and how she came on-board the project. “I had only seen a picture of Amy on the internet of her winning the Miss Teen World 2009 and asked my agent to contact her agent and make her come for the audition,” said Vijay.
“I was in London auditioning for the role and my agent could not get in touch with Amy Jackson till the last day and he was only telling me she will come. And then, she came on the last day of audition, with only a few hours left, and I saw her standing in the queue. I walked directly to her and brought her to the team and she is playing the role,” narrated Vijay. About her role, Amy says,”I got a call from my agent, saying a director from India wants to meet with you. I said, ‘I’m not an actress, I can’t act’. He said that they had a character, and they wanted me to act out a few scenes. But I was still skeptical. Nevertheless, I went, read the story and it was incredible. It really resonated with me. And Vijay, as a person, was very warm. He showed me the ropes. The whole Madrasapattinam team – it was like a family.
