Nothing is easy, and as far as my modelling career goes, the path to the top has been long and difficult, but that's what makes it special. I always look back to remind myself where I've come from.
I can't say that I wanted to be an actress, it just happened along the way. I did not even know that I would be doing modelling but that also just happened.
I started as a model when I was 14 because I wanted to make money.
When I came to Mumbai in 2005 for a holiday, I received work offers. So I decided to stay back and pursue a modelling and acting career.
I rarely had the opportunity to work as a full time model or to pursue a professional career in modelling, because school was always my priority.
My memories of the whirlwind '90s are a blur of work schedules. I was completing my B. Com. degree in 1991 when I took to modelling and acting in TV serials. A year later, I found my foothold in movies.
I know that I won't be modelling forever, but I think I'll be in the entertainment industry. I would love to host a talk show one day or have a cooking show. I love to cook... I'm really open, so we'll see.
I started modelling in college, but it was part time since I was kind of nerdy and wanted to finish my studies.
I did modelling for five years, then I felt I wanted to do something different and challenging.
When I began modelling I was completely unprepared for the onslaught of curiosity it carried with it.
I did a lot of lingerie modelling, like, for plus-size, like Macy's and Dillard's and Bloomingdale's. I was, like, on a billboard in New York one time in, like, a bra and underwear. Yeah.
I had started modelling and doing ramp shows. Then I signed the 'Kama Sutra' campaign. Overnight I became known as this sexy, hot chick.
I went to a hotel to become a chef and then tried becoming a flight attendant, but no one took me. I then worked in a travel agency and got into advertising and modelling after someone spotted me. So I started doing ads. I did 'Charminar' ad, because of which I got two films.
I'm trying my best with what I want to do, which is modelling. I think I'm on my own career path, and I don't really care what other people have to say about me being in the spotlight of my sisters. I'm just doing my own thing.
When I was young, I used to tell my mum that she had to get me on the TV, but then modelling just sort of happened.
I've been really lucky. When I decided to go to LA I said I was going to quit modelling and just go and see how I do. In the first two weeks I got three movies. I was so excited I had all my furniture shipped out from New York.
I think in terms of me shying away from modelling, I would like to clarify in some way that I was taking a break from many things in my life and obviously what people in the public see is that I'm pulling away from what is more public.
Mum left school at 15, and after a few years of modelling and dating jazz musicians, was married by 21 to my father, Mike Taylor, a journalist on the 'Daily Mirror.' They had my brother and me pretty quickly and had split up by the time I was two. I don't really have any memories of them as a couple.
We have to come into this industry so young, and you have to learn to take it as it is. I was scouted at 14, started modelling at 15, and lived in New York at 16.
I always wanted to be an actor and started modelling for various commercials when I was 16 and when I was in Class XII, got 'Issaq' through auditioning.
My modelling career is about hard work.
When I decided to go to L.A. I said I was going to quit modelling and just go and see how I do. In the first two weeks I got three movies. I was so excited I had all my furniture shipped out from New York.
I never wanted to be a model. My modelling career was nothing but a stepping stone to my acting career and that's all I ever saw it as. A pointless rock in the river that has to be stepped on in order to get to the meaningful oasis of acting.
At 24, I took time off to have a baby, and ever since, I have been juggling modelling with motherhood.
I don't think modelling is a career I'm going to pursue.
