Nethra needed the money desperately

Those who undermined the potential of this petite, glamourous girl were amazed by her resilience when, week after week, she jumped from a helicopter, allowed spiders to crawl all over her, jumped in deep water and emerged as the clear winner of Fear Factor ��� Khatron Ke Khiladi.
Nethra Raghuraman, the model-turned-actress, who has performed all these stunts with apparent ease and finesse, tells DT that the win has helped her attain some personal goals and has taken care of some of her acute financial crisis.
���I wasn���t sacred���
You will be surprised to know that Nethra, who performed these spine-chilling stunts, can���t swim and is scared of heights and creepy-crawlies. So, what egged her on to participate in such a daring game? Surely, there must have been moments when she just wanted to quit the game? ���I didn���t enter the contest thinking about winning. I just took each day as it came, and slowly I started enjoying the daredevil acts. Yes, there were moments when I just wanted to run away from the sheer madness of it all. But I am not chickenhearted, so I stayed on,��� confesses Nethra.
Fan following
With 13 girls competing for the prize money, how was it vying for macho man Akshay Kumar���s attention on the sets? Nethra says that Akki always motivated the girls and was like a friend to all of them. ���He goaded us all to push ourselves to extremes ��� physically and mentally. As a true mentor, he gave us hell when we couldn���t perform a simple stunt, so there wasn���t any question of competing on that front,��� says she.
Money helps
Just when you are congratulating the young lady on her admirable feat and ask her how does she plan to spend the prize money of Rs 50 lakh, Nethra surprises you yet again with her complete honesty. She says, ���Before Fear Factor... happened, I desperately needed money for a very personal reason. I would not like to talk about that reason, but I would like to tell you that I was wondering all the time from where will I get all that money. Even now, I may have to take a loan from a bank, but this prize money has been a great help.���
Is it her relationship turmoil that has made her so financially insecure? Nethra says, ���Let me just say that I have recently gone through a lot of ups and downs in life. One tends to plan the future in a particular way, but things take unforeseen and unusual turns. But, after the turmoil, I have emerged as a happy person and a winner in more ways than one. I am not a religious person, but I am deeply spiritual, and right now I am getting to know my inner self.���
And what about the future plans? ���I am quite happy with my modelling assignments. I am also reading some interesting film scripts. There are a couple of projects in the pipeline and soon you will hear something positive on this front,��� says she.