Manisha Koirala reveals she was asked to lie about drinking alcohol, was seen as ‘easy girl’ for dating men: ‘We had a warped value system’

Manisha said that she did not like the idea of keeping secrets, so if she was dating somebody, she would admit it. “If I was dating somebody, I am dating somebody. You want to judge me? Go ahead and judge me but that’s me, this is me and I lead my life on my own terms,” she said. Manisha spoke about the sexism that was prevalent in the movie industry in those days, where male actors would be seen as “macho” for having many girlfriends but female actors would be seen as “easy” if they were dating someone.

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“I faced some flak for it because in those days, the heroes could have many girlfriends, and they were called macho men, but the actress was supposed to be this, ‘no no no, nobody is touching me’ and ‘we are very untouched’,” she said and added, “It was also misunderstood that (she is) very easy or easy girl to you know… But I took it on my stride.” Manisha then said that it was a misconception in those days that women who had a personal life were somehow unprofessional. “Just because I have a personal life or I have a boyfriend doesn’t mean I am going to be unprofessional in my life. I love my work. We had some very warped value system for actresses, which didn’t go well with me,” she said.

Manisha has previously opened up about her alcoholism in her memoir Healed. “To take my mind off shoots, to numb myself, I started drinking. If I was on a diet, it would be vodka,” she wrote.