Sonakshi Sinha: Was a strong child, looks never mattered to me

Mumbai: Actress Sonakshi Sinha has unveiled the latest edition of Women's Health magazine, displaying her slender figure on its cover. The actress admits achieving the slim and trim look wasn't easy for somebody like her who hates the gym.

The actress, whose weight has been the point of concern for many in showbiz, is happy with her makeover.

"It was not easy at all for somebody like me. I am the kind of person who hates the gym. I am allergic to the gym. I want to run away from it," Sonakshi said Thursday at the unveiling event here.

"But I think once I put my mind to something, I go out and achieve it and I guess I did that," she added.

The 26-year-old emphasised that her determination and hard work yielded desired results.

"I decided I want to do it (shed weight) and I took a step to achieve that...tried to achieve my goal rather than being pressurised from people and telling, 'O look at her, she is so fat, she is this...she is that.'"

"If it hadn't come from within, I didn't want to do it," Sonakshi said.

Before foraying into films in 2010, Sonakshi had to shed many extra kilos to get into a perfect shape. She lost almost 30 kgs before signing her debut film "Dabangg" (2010) opposite Salman Khan.

Sonakshi, who feels "she has succeeded in closing critics mouth, who criticised her for being overweight", further shared her experience of growing up as a rotund teenager.

"I was over-confident while growing up. I think when you look a certain way, you try and compensate by something else. I was always a strong child, was always confident, but looks never mattered to me," Sonakshi, daughter of actors Poonam and Shatrughan Sinha, said.

"That was (looks) not that important to me as there were a lot of other things going on, like I used to play a lot of sports...and a lot of other stuff," she added.

For Sonakshi, "Self esteem was not a problem at all" and she added: "I am one of the few lucky ones because I have had friends who have self-esteem problems. Even though they are not really fat, but will put themselves down".