Cameraperson: Sanjoy Deb
Editor: Kunal Mehra
Lisa Ray was discovered as a teenager, and shot to instant success as a model. Yet her journey is more than what we see on the outside. Splashed on the cover of magazines, signing amazing films and projects she still battled self image issues. She travelled the world restlessly in search of herself. One day the world changed for her when she was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. But Lisa's story of grit and humour inspires. ‘’There is no contract you sign that you will get through life unscathed. That you will be untouched. But no experience is ever wasted”, says Lisa.
“One of India’s first supermodels. Actor. Cancer Survivor. Mother of twins through surrogacy. Woman of no fixed address.”Blurb from “Close To The Bone’’ by Lisa Ray
It looks like Lisa just may have a fixed address at last. From the moment I walked in to her penthouse in Bandra, literally the day after she relocated with her family for good, there is a zen-like calm as she gets her hair and make-up done in a sunny enclosed deck.
With her 9-month-old twin girls away at a play date at a friend’s home, Lisa tells me how she and her husband decided that India is where they wanted to raise their girls.
Lisa’s book, ‘Close To The Bone’, is the story of a young teenage model who was born to a Bengali father and Polish mother, and grew up in Toronto – the story of the grit, and humour that it takes to get through challenges and come out stronger.
“I shut down completely. It was the beginning of a very long emotional hibernation as well as the end of a belief that I was entitled to get through life unscathed.”Lisa Ray, Actor, Model, Writer in book Close To The Bone
This was the moment when Lisa, a young teen, learnt that her mother had suffered a serious injury after a car accident. This was the ‘yet undiscovered’ Lisa who was soon to be 'lauched’’ by Maureen Wadia, and introduced to Bombay’s celebrity world. A world that Lisa inhabited as both an insider and an outsider and of which she became an astute observer.
In Bombay’s mythology I would learn there are no saints, no villains, only circumstances and the jaded utility of relationship. I kept hearing the murmur of strange rumours...In the time before trolls there was just this. Words that cut to the bone. I didn’t know this was just a habit of the unhappy rich.”Excerpt From Close To The Bone
More than two decades later still very much in business with brand endorsements, web series and movie roles, Lisa Ray will soon be seen in A.R Rahman’s 99 Songs.
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