EXCLUSIVE by Sue Crawford
As the headstrong teenage daughter of Coronation Streetshopkeeper Dev she's used to facing the wrath of her over-protective dad, and actress Nikki Patel admits that when the cameras stop rolling, nothing changes.
For actor Jimmi Harkishin, who plays Dev, worries so much about her that she's dubbed him 'second dad'.
"He's very protective. If I'm ever going out he tells me to behave myself and not to drink and he'll say: 'Don't be leaving with any boys alright?' Then I have to text him and let him know when I get home!" Nikki laughs.
"He's concerned for my wellbeing and he's always telling me to go to university and carry on with my education. Being a father himself he has that instinct to look after me as well, which I really appreciate; he's very caring.
"I went to an awards ceremony recently and he kept texting me throughout it saying: 'Have a good evening, be careful. Don't misbehave. Let me know you're alright.' So I sent him one back saying: 'Got drunk and had an argument with a paparazzi photographer.'
"He was really worried and I let him sweat for an hour before I told him I was winding him up and I was actually drinking orange juice and everything was fine!"
Not that Jimmi has anything to worry about at the moment as far as boyfriends are concerned, for 18 year-old Nikki is single - and very happily so.
She says: "I don't have time for a boyfriend at the moment. I'm still young and I prefer doing my own thing without having to answer to someone; boyfriends are too much work!"
On screen it's a different story though.
Schoolgirl Amber is currently dating kebab shop worker Daryl Morton, but Nikki's first screen kiss was with David Platt, played by Jack Shepherd, and she remembers it as if it was yesterday.
"It was mortifying and I was so scared," she admits. "Jack is a real joker so he just laughed about it and tried to put me at my ease and calm me down. His way of doing that was to wind me up. I remember in the morning I was eating a cereal bar and he walked past and said: 'Oh, I'll be tasting that later, won't I?'
"The thing was Amber really fancied him so she was really going for it. It was filmed over three scenes so that was four hours of kissing - it took ages!
"I didn't watch it when it went out - me and my mum were watching a film at the time because I didn't want her to see it - but I suddenly got 20 text messages from my friends and I knew that was the moment it had been shown!
"My Dad was in India at the time, so he missed it. I don't even think he knows that I did it! I never told him!"
Nikki joined Coronation Street as a 15-year-old in 2005. She initially appeared sporadically but scriptwriters spotted her potential and moved Amber in with Dev making her a regular on the show.
The following year she was nominated for Best Newcomer at the National TV Awards. Since then she has become a firm favourite as she winds Dev around her little finger.
In real life Nikki still lives at home in Leeds, with her Indian-born parents Pushpa and Ash.
"They think that Amber is really cheeky and they're just glad that I'm not as forthcoming!" Nikki laughs.
"I don't speak my mind in the same way; I'm a bit more respectful."
Nikki grew up in Bradford with her parents, grandparents and older brother Sunil, 28, an IT manager. Her parents are now retired, but while she was growing up they ran their own corner shop - Ash's Ryecroft Village Store.
"How ironic, that I've ended up working in one in Coronation Street!" Nikki laughs.
"It's weird, but then literally everyone I know in my family has a corner shop, so it doesn't seem that unusual to me to be playing an Asian girl who is the daughter of a shopkeeper."
Not that Nikki picked up much from her days living over the shop.
"People assume I must have the experience, but I don't. I know what to do with a price gun, but that's about it," she admits.
"My parents were perfectionists so I just stayed out of the way. I once used the price gun to label some cans of beans and I didn't do it the way my Dad wanted so I gave up.
"If I was moving crates of beer I was too slow and too weak compared to my Mum so I left them to it. Our house was attached to the shop so I sat in the back and had the house to myself while they worked!"
But while serving in a shop didn't appeal, starring in Bollywood did.
"I grew up with my Grandma and Granddad and we had all the Asian channels on TV and I had to sit it out through hours of Bollywood films," Nikki recalls. "I picked up Hindi really well and really got into the idea of being an actress."
At the age of eight her parents enrolled her in a local drama club and when she was a teenager she joined the renowned Bradford based Stage 84.
Incredibly Coronation Street's Nikki's very first acting job. She had only been at the theatre school for five months when she was invited to audition for the part of Dev's secret daughter Amber.
"It was my first audition so I didn't know what to expect so I was more excited than nervous," she says.
"I hadn't watched a single episode of Coronation Street in my life. My family are keen viewers and they told me not to say that I didn't watch it. But in the audition they said to me: 'Do you watch it?' and I shook my head and said: 'Never!'
"Obviously I started watching when I got the audition so I knew who Dev was before I did the screen test with him and by then I was getting very nervous. I was really shaking when I went in and he could see that and he was lovely.
"He put his arm around me and said: 'Babe, calm down, you're doing really well.' He was so encouraging."
Nikki was offered the role and just three days later was on set, juggling filming, with her studies at Whitcliffe Mount School in Bradford.
"It did get a little bit hectic at times," she admits. "If I had a storyline going on I'd be up until 5am doing my schoolwork."
Her hard work paid off and she left last year with 4 A levels and is about to start a six-year Open University degree in Psychology.
Now she is at Coronation Street full-time she has been given bigger storylines. She's had Dev tearing his hair out over her relationship with Daryl and constantly leaves him floored with her barbed comments about his relationship with girlfriend Tara.
"When I joined I was told that Amber was streetwise, sassy and intelligent," Nikki says. "She was a bit of a chav to start with, but she's developed and I really like her.
"She's witty and clever and sarcastic - there's a bit of me in her, although I'm not as quick-witted; I'm quite slow compared to her!
"She doesn't want to be the stereotypical daughter of an Asian shopkeeper and I can see that in myself. She doesn't want to be respectful and obedient and do the cooking and cleaning. I'm the same, I can't cook to save my life and I don't clean up very much!"
Viewers are about to see Amber in the middle of another big storyline as Tara finally exacts her revenge on love cheat Dev. After discovering he slept with his ex Lisa she persuaded Dev to have a set of naked photographs taken, which she has turned into an embarrassing 20ft banner.
The banner is dramatically unveiled on the side of the Victoria Court flats to a waiting crowd. But not before besotted Dev gets down on one knee and proposes.
Nikki says: "Amber is angry with both of them. She was starting to get on well with Tara, but then Dev goes and ruins it.
"Amber had no idea that Dev had cheated and she's also horrified at what Tara has done. She thinks they're both in the wrong. She feels completely humiliated and says she's never going to speak to Dev again."
In real life Nikki is a far more fashionable and glamorous than dowdy shop girl Amber, but she insists she does not envy the sexy outfits of co-stars such as Helen Flanagan who plays glamorous PA Rosie Webster.
"Amber has worn some terrible clothes, but I'm really not fussed because it suits the character," she says. "It's the same with make-up. I come into work and I'm out of the make-up room in three minutes. My hair is a little bit longer now, so maybe four minutes!
"I've just been shopping with the wardrobe department and we've bought Amber some new clothes, so you'll see a little bit of my input, but her clothes will still stay quite simple and mature.
"This photo shoot is my first ever, so it's been a great opportunity to be glamorous and show another side to me. If Iím going out, I love to dress up. Like all girls, I set out with an intention to be practical and end up going for high heels and vests as dresses in the middle of winter!"
As for the future, Nikki is hoping she will be able to make a full-time career out of acting. "That's the ideal," she says. "But I'm also realistic, which is why I'm doing my degree. It's another string to my bow.
"I don't like to plan ahead too much as I think that's tempting fate, but I'll stay in Coronation Street for as long as they'll have me really. They write great stuff for Amber and I'm really happy here."
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