An actress who has made her mark in both the industries she’s associated with her remarkable talent. Her gorgeous looks mixed with her amazing work in movies like Pokiri, Barfi and Rustom, has gained her immense popularity.
When Ileana was twelve, and she hit puberty, the changes in her body grabbed the attention of many. She would be walking on her way, and random people would comment on her back and body in general. The incidents scarred the actor mentally as they changed her outlook towards her body.
As a student, she wasn’t very bright. The glamour industry appealed more to her. Her well-wishers told her that she has a vibrant smile and gorgeous looks. Therefore, she decided to give her dream of becoming a model a shot. She met Mark Robinson, her mentor when her mother used to work at a hotel. The manager introduced her to him and asked him to guide her into modelling.
She went for photoshoots to get her portfolio done, which in the beginning was disastrous. After several attempts, she was able to get a perfect portfolio done. She started modelling, which got her into advertisements. The ad for Fair & Lovely was directed by Rakesh Roshan, which got her noticed by filmmakers. She started getting offers for work and entered the south film industry at just twenty years of age.
The actress feels that she was very naive while choosing films at the beginning of her career. She used to sign films that came her way without thinking and often joke that she was the Akshay Kumar of South, doing four films in a year.
Even while working, she didn’t tell her directors that she felt uncomfortable doing a certain shot. She often shares that once, a director threw a ceramic shell on her midriff, which was quite heavy, and she asked why that shot was taken. He just said that it looks good and people will like it. She wanted to be liked by people, and so she let it be.
But over time, she understood she had to take things seriously and started being more conscious of her choices. With her hard work and dedication, she displayed her talent in films like Pokiri & Jalsa.
Ileana D’Cruz had the opportunity to enter Bollywood with Salman Khan in Wanted, and she was overjoyed. But later, when she was called for the photoshoots, she had to drop the project as it was hampering her studies. She put her studies over her big Bollywood debut and decided to study for her exams instead.
In Special 26, she ended up rejecting the offer as she thought that her role wasn’t much in the film. The now learned actor didn’t ask the director to increase her role as she knew it wasn’t the demand of the film. For the similar reason of role being limited, Ileana rejected MS Dhoni: The Untold Story.
Ileana D’Cruz has shown her acting skills beautifully in her movies. Learning from her work over the years, she knows that her character in the movie needs to be strong and meaty to display her performance. The actress, therefore, has a lot of offers that come her way. She doesn’t sign films only because the story is great. She consciously chooses a movie where she also has a role in that story.
The actress admits that she had suffered through BDD. There was a time when she would look at herself in the mirror, and all she would see was flaws and felt nothing was acceptable. She felt her belly wasn’t flat enough, thighs and arms had lumps, or her nose wasn’t straight enough. She would work extremely hard on her flaws and try to get rid of her lumps and scars as she wanted to please everyone. Her mental health was affected so much that she would go from happy to depressed in seconds. Her only comfort was her suicidal thoughts at that time.
Thankfully, she reached out and got help. With a lot of effort, she started accepting herself and stopped trying to please people. The actress now calls herself “Beautifully flawed” and encourages people to love and accept themselves as they are.
Ileana D’Cruz is one of the few actors who are known to speak their minds freely. She has used her voice and platform often to speak up on topics she relates to, such as cyberbullying. The actress requested people to be kind with their words.
Ileana is among the most talented actors in the industry. She has a huge fan following in and outside India, such as in Pakistan. She has gained all this love and status only because of her hard work, talent, and sincerity towards her work.
