Lisa Ray says I was a sex symbol at the age of 16

Lisa Ray who has worked in films like Water and Kasoor, says she does not like being boxed into a certain identity. This is why being known as a sex symbol at the age of 16 still haunts her.

The 47-year-old Indo-Candian actress, said while at the peak of her career, she was grappling through a personal tragedy as her mother had met with an accident, leaving her wheelchair-bound.

“I understood at a very young age – I was 16 then – that all the aspects that you call success — name, fame and money — they don’t solve the questions of the soul. So, my ambitions became different. My goal wasn’t to become famous.

The actress, who had recently released her memoir Close to the Bone, hopes that people will understand her better after reading about her journey.

“I hate to be labelled and put into boxes but I had to deal with it since a young age because I was a sex symbol at the age of 16. It was completely unanticipated.

To suddenly become this figure for an entire nation and on top of that, to look much older, that has haunted me my entire life up until now,” she told PTI.

The model-actress, who overcame multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells, said the book should not be read just as a cancer memoir because it gives a glimpse into her journey right from the beginning of her fame.

“A lot of people will understand how I have this ambivalent relationship with my career, how I am an accidental actress, how I always had one foot in and one foot out of it and how I believe that I have been underestimated only because of the way I look. Although, I don’t believe they shouldn’t be at odds with each other,” the actress said.

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