PTP

Lisa Ray was finishing high school in Canada with aspirations of majoring in Journalism at University when a celebrated fashion magazine approached her to model for them, and she ended up on the cover. This catapulted her into a state of instant celebrity. Her high-profile career got her noticed by Indian filmmakers, but she refused many offers until the offbeat _Kasoor (2000)_, which received a considerable amount of attention. Indian-Canadian director Deepa Mehta then cast her as the lead in the lighthearted romantic comedy Bollywood/Hollywood (2002), which went on to be a huge success in Canada. She subsequently moved to London to study acting and concentrate on a serious career in the performing arts. After graduating from drama school she was reunited with Deepa Mehta in the critically lauded Water (2005/I). She has since carved out a challenging variety of characterizations- everything from a farm girl to a femme fatale- which is a testament to her adaptability and desire for challenge.

Her cat eyes

Voted Star of the Future at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival.

Is of Indian and Polish descent.

Is fluent in Hindi, although it is not her first language.

Named one of the top-10 most beautiful Indian women of the millennium by the Daily Times of India.

Lived in London for three years while attending drama school.

Cut off her waist length hair for her role in 'Water'. It was done while filming a scene.

Trained for 5 months in mime in London.

Declared 'one of the most beautiful women on film' by Ebert and Roeper in a 2007 review of 'Water'.

Features in Canadian edition of Hello magazine as one of the '50 Most Beautiful People' of the country, May 2009.

Was strongly considered for the Bond Girl role of Camille in 'Quantam of Solace'.

Was diagnosed with multiple myeloma on June 23rd, 2009.

"The story of my so-called affair with Sanjay Dutt came as a shock to me. I couldn't handle it, so I ran away to Canada."

"I believe in destiny."

"When ever I'm stressed I love getting away and going home to Toronto."

India is such a strong movie-going culture. Watching a film in a cinema there is radically different from watching one anywhere else. And that, in turn, has informed the way films are made there. That's probably why the films are so incredibly long - it's not just about watching the film. The entire family socializes while watching the movie. (...) That's why the acting has to be so loud.

I have no home. I'm kind of placed in London, but Paris is where my boyfriend is. My parents are in Toronto and I work in New York and India a lot. That makes me a bit of a chameleon, and frankly, I like that.

"I do feel that I'm equally at ease in Paris as I am in a village in India as I am in a café in Montreal or on Queen Street in Toronto. I like that. It work for my acting process as well."

"In the past, whenever I have seen myself on screen, I have felt uncomfortable so often, wondering why I reacted in a particular way in one scene, or why I didn't react in a particular way in another. But nothing of that sort happened when I saw it at the premiere. Of course, Deepa had made sure all of us did our work very well." (5-10-2006)

On how she got the role in Water (2005/I): "Deepa sent me the script about two years ago. It had cheesy title like River Moon, and I was told it would be shot without any publicity in Sri Lanka, and we were not to talk about it till it was completed. As I was reading it, I knew it was Water. There was no question of rejecting it. When I remembered what had happened to Deepa in India, I became even more determined to be in the film." (10 May 2006)

On preparing for her role in Water (2005/I): "Deepa gave us all plenty to read about the state of widows, not only in the 1930s but also today. But I also knew I had to something more. I decided to go to India, and look at how the widows lived in rural areas. I even went to Varanasi. I went there pretending to be a tourist. I even had my camera! I went to the widows' homes, went to temples, heard widows sing the Radha-Krishna bhajans, and watched them for hours. I followed their body language. I was adding (from the observations) what I had read about them and from the memory of widows in my own family." (10 May 2006)

On meeting the audience for Water (2005): "Even before the film was released, we knew it would be wrong to think that Water is only about widows in a holy city in India. And Canadian audiences knew that instantly. Some people have come out of the theater, telling us that Water made them think a lot about their own communities. A Greek woman told me, 'I never realized it, but we did similar things to our widows.'" (10 May 2006)

When asked if she is not interested in Bollywood films: "Not if I get the kind of parts Deepa offers me. I worked in one film in Bollywood but I am here, and I look forward to films being made here. I have nothing against good Bollywood films. Many are very camp and very over the top -- those films are not for me. I have lived in India for some years and am very proud of my Indian heritage." (10 May 2006)

(March 2008) Based in Toronto and Los Angeles