W

hile many doubted that Luna Maya could ever survive and bounce back after a sex-video scandal the actress entrepreneur has shown through her fighting spirit and resiliency that she is stronger than ever.

About a year ago, Luna was at the lowest point of her life after the sex video allegedly showing her and her boyfriend, Nazril “Ariel” Irham, circulated through the internet and made media headlines.

Both Luna and Ariel faced mockery and hatred from the country’s leading moralists and a police investigation into the scandal. They were condemned as degenerates and disgraceful models for Indonesian youth by preachers and public officials.

Ariel was subsequently sentenced to three years imprisonment for adultery despite the court not being able to prove that the individuals in the video were actually him and Luna.

Luna was acquitted of all charges but nevertheless still had to face public derision and the ruin of her career.

In a short period, Luna was dropped from advertising endorsements and TV appearances. To make the situation worse, some of her fans also turned on her. She literally lost everything that she had worked so hard to achieve.

People believed that they had seen the last of Luna, and she herself almost thought the same but after a struggle she eventually managed to find her path back.

“At that point, it felt like as if I was sunk in a very deep pile of mud,” Luna told The Jakarta Post during a recent interview in Plaza Senayan.

“I went everywhere and people looked at me. They stared at me and I didn’t have the courage to look back. I kept my head down. But after a while, I couldn’t take it any more, I decided to lift my head up, to breathe and to march forward without fear,” she added.

“I was at the lowest point of my life but I bounced back. I don’t want to sound arrogant but I am proud of myself,” she went on.

Luna said it was not hard for her to bounce back due to her long experience as a real life fighter which was forged particularly by her mother’s character and advice.

Although being born as the only girl of three siblings, Luna said that she was never hesitant in facing much larger male school bullies on her own.

“When I was in fourth grade, I physically fought a bully. He acted as if he was the boss of the class, telling other people what to do. The whole class was afraid of him but not me. Other than him, I got involved in a lot of fights as a kid. I have battle scars and bruises on my head that I believe, if my hair was fully shaved, would still be visible even now,” Luna said laughing as she recalled her early past life.

Luna said that her relentless fighting character had also helped her survive in the modeling world, a glamorous and alluring industry to outsiders but a constant battle of survival for those involved in it.

“I got into the modeling world when I was just a teenager. My classmates sent my photos to a teen magazine and I won. It was around the year 1999. After that, I started to appear in advertisements,” she said.

In the early part of her career, Luna chose to stay in Bali instead of Jakarta but as time went by, she decided to move into the capital city on her own.

Luna said that what made Jakarta and Bali so different was the attitude of people to privacy and this made it difficult for her to adapt at first.

“In Bali, people tend to mind their own business. They do not care about other people’s personal matters. In Jakarta, I found that most people always wanted to know about other people’s personal lives,” she said.

Luna said that Jakartans had the tendency to look for faults in successful people. She said that no matter how hard or sincerely successful people tried to set good examples, there would always be haters waiting for them to make a mistake and jump on the opportunity to do them down.

“Due to my background, I decided to ignore all the haters because I do not want to be defeated by insignificant matters. Everyone has their own path to success. If they are prepared to fight for it, then they will make it,” she said.

Luna believes that haters tend to envy successful people because they themselves do not have the courage to struggle for success and believe that success can be achieved instantly and therefore can not appreciate the process that successful individuals had to go through.

“I still remember my first taste of success. I managed to buy a Guess wrist watch using my own money from modeling. Its price was Rp 750,000. It was very expensive for me at that time but it was my watch. I bought it on my own and I was very proud,” she said.

“I want people to have that kind of mentality. To achieve their dreams on their own. Set your heart on what you want. As of now, I see people who still want to take shortcuts and take things that they have no right to have,” she added.

After more than a decade in the entertainment spotlight, Luna has also moved on to other ventures and slowly transformed herself into a fully fledged businesswoman.

She, and several friends, founded a clothing line three years ago. She has also produced several films and is now working with some friends on several film projects.

All the experiences — constant fighting against bullies from her childhood, her mother’s advice, her struggle to survive in the modeling world on her own, the video scandal and her ventures into various businesses — have taught Luna that individuals have to be able to take care of themselves, to become their own leaders and to not depend on others or any system for their lives.

“Indonesians are still looking for a figure to save them. They should not. Instead, each of them must become their own president,” she said.