The actor Aishwarya Rajesh remembered a harrowing moment with a photographer before she came under international acclaim, in both the Telugu and Tamil film industries. In a podcast with Nikhil Vijayendra Simha, the actor detailed an incident when she was nearly exploited by being asked to wear lingerie in a photoshoot — despite being young herself.

Aishwarya Rajesh recalled about how she had almost been exploited by the photographer herself, a former that the actor says she was in at a time when she was ‘very young’, and before she was taking up films. “I was called for a photoshoot, and my brother and I went by my side. I will never forget this incident. He asked my brother to sit outside. Then he gave me sexy lingerie and said, wear this, I want to see your body. I was so young it confused me,” said the actor.

She also confessed to how when the photographer and the few people around him tried to persuade me, the actor nearly thought this was something she had to do. “If I had been convinced by them, I would have worn it more. But there was something inside me that wanted to tell them I need my brother to give me permission. I just left with my brother instead of telling. It made me think about how many little girls they’ve done this to; it took a toll on me,” she said. Aishwarya Rajesh’s career and life For the uninitiated, Aishwarya is the daughter of Telugu actor Rajesh and dancer Nagamani. 

She is the granddaughter of actor Amarnath and niece of actor Sri Lakshmi. Rajesh died when Aishwarya was a small child, and Nagamani cared for three boys and one girl. But then the actor and her mother faced tragedy again, when two of her brothers died when she was young, too.