I can proudly say that I have arrived

When everyone’s doing it, why should I feel guilty?” asks Unika Ray. The model-turned-actor is best known for her role in Possessed Love,which released earlier this year on video streaming platform Ullu—known for producing soft porn. The film got lakhs of views in a month or two of its release. Ray plays a “sexy ghost” who enters the body of a newly-wed woman every night, using the body as a medium to make love to her living boyfriend inside a palace. The film is bold in its content, with Ray shedding her inhibitions to play a seductress.

Dare to bare: Unika Ray

“I have done nothing more or less than anyone else, including our mainstream Bollywood actresses,” says the 25-year-old. “Why did Radhika Apte deliver a bold, short film before she went on to reach the pedestal that she is on today? Acting out an intimate scene is no big deal today. It is literally everywhere, right from the content on big-name OTT platforms to our mainstream Bollywood films. The fact is that one has to look at it as work and then everything falls into place.”

This March, Ray, who originally hails from Raipur,was at her happiest when Instagram verified her account that has close to three lakh followers. “I can proudly say that I have arrived,” she says. “People now know me as an actress and I have begun to get work at a consistent pace now.”

Last year was hard on Ray as she had no work because of the pandemic. She moved back home to be with her parents—her father has a construction business and her mother is a homemaker. And then, this March, Possessed Love came her way. “I had not even read the script initially. I simply agreed to work in a web series when they called to check my availability,” she says. “I was desperate and needed something.”

On reaching the sets, Ray was told that the actor who had initially agreed to do the role had backed out, perhaps because of the bold scenes. Ray was asked if she would like to do the role. “By then I had already signed the contract—I was to be paid Rs50,000 per day for a four-day shoot,” she says. “To go back meant losing all that money. So, I decided to stay put.”

She also informed her parents about her decision. “Surprisingly, they were supportive,” recalls Ray. “‘If you chose to be a model/actor, what did you expect?’ asked my mother and gave me the go-ahead. Since then, there has been no looking back. I look at it as part of my job because acting does not only involve the face but the entire body. I kissed, hugged, felt, touched and performed foreplay on camera.”

Ray was just 18 when she was spotted by actor Mamta Kulkarni, who was the chief guest at the annual function of her college in Pune. She studied media and communication, but was not very “academically oriented”. In 2017, she did her first short film—Gustaaq Dil—YouTube. She was not paid for it as the makers said they were working on “very low budgets”. The shoot happened inside a rented apartment in Mumbai’s Powai. Ray says the film was released on YouTube, but it does not show up in the search results.

Ray got her first portfolio shoot done for Rs2 lakh and soon began posing for product shoots, essentially saris and salwar suits. She also did a raunchy item song in a Hindi/Bhojpuri film. “I feel super successful already. There is so much money in this industry,” she says over the phone, while waiting to board a flight to Delhi for an ad shoot.

Does she not feel conscious or awkward while shooting ‘bold’ scenes in front of a large crew? “They make sure you feel comfortable on the sets. And then, silicone [body suits are] used to a large extent while shooting, but on the screen it appears as if nothing is there,” she says, chuckling.

Ray recently kicked off her “side-business” (hair extensions) along with a female friend and is looking forward to her next feature—Friends With Benefits—for an OTT platform.