Indian actress Jacqueline Fernandez's big year

With good looks that have charmed the Indian film industry, Jacqueline Fernandez, 29, seems set for success after her 2014 hit action movie Kick. This year, her popularity is set to rise as she has been cast in five films - Roy, Bangistan and Brothers for Bollywood; and Definition Of Fear and According To Matthew for Hollywood.

Here are some facts about the soon-to-be international star:

1 Jacqueline comes from an ethnically diverse family. Her father is Sri Lankan, her mother is half-Canadian and half-Malaysian and her great-grandparents came from Goa.

2 She spent her childhood in Bahrain, where she also began hosting TV shows when she was just 14.

3 She has aspired to become an actress since the age of eight.

4 She obtained a mass communication degree at the University of Sydney in Australia which led to her career as a reporter in Sri Lanka.

5 She wrote weekly columns for the Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror and was an anchorwoman for the Lanka Business Report.

6 She took up modelling jobs after college and in 2006, was crowned Miss Sri Lanka Universe. She represented Sri Lanka in the 2006 Miss Universe held in Los Angeles.

7 Her first film was Aladin in 2009 and though the film was a flop, she still managed to impress the judges in the International Indian Film Academy Awards 2010 who awarded her with the Female Star Debut Of The Year.

8 According To Matthew, a Hollywood-produced Sri Lankan film directed by Chandran Rutnam, will be her English-language debut as an actress.

9 She is multilingual and can speak French, Spanish, Arabic, English, Urdu, Hindi, Sinhalese and Tamil.

10 In 2009, she started a two-year relationship with Bahrain prince Sheikh Hassan Rashid Al Khalifa, and after dumping him, began dating Bollywood director Sajid Khan for three years until they broke up in 2013.

11 As a defender of animal rights, she was named Woman of the Year 2014 for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India and is the brand ambassador for The Body Shop.

12 She loves horses, and in 2011, she sent a letter to the Mumbai Municipal Commissioner to ban unlicensed horse carriages from operating in the city.

13 To keep fit, she practises jazz ballet and yoga.

14 Cooking is her hobby, and she counts French cuisine as being her favourite to both cook and eat.

15 If she wasn't an actress, she would want to be a food documentary film-maker so she can travel the world and talk about the different kinds of food she gets to eat.

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