The Film Industry is not for everyone, especially for those who don’t fit the beauty standards for the critique. If you are too think or too think you will be body shamed every day in your life. If you’re not fair or ugly they will make you feel the worse about yourself. People barely make the lead actress of the movie, there’s this unsaid stereotype of the lead actress being cast as the main character and the ugly one as the side character. You will end up being depressed and hating yourself if you are not confident about yourself before entering the industry. But there is this one actress who broke all these norms since the beginning of her career, you might call the Manjulika, you might call her “The Dirty Girl”, but for me, she will always be an icon.
Vidya Balan has been working in this industry for years now and not once this woman has gone low with her confidence. She’s bold, she’s outspoken she’s everything. But there was a time when Vidya Balan couldn’t look in the mirror for three days. Vidya Balan who’s wrapped up with her promotions for “Bhool Bhulaiya 3” just shared her painful experience when a producer made a derogatory comment about her, which left hurtful remarks on her self-image. This is about the time when the actress was replaced in a Tamil movie within 2 days by another actress who was more beautiful and had a good figure according to the producers of the movie. During an interaction with Galatta India, the actress shared how in the early phase of her career she was removed from a Tamil movie after shooting just for two days.
She tried to seek a confrontation with the producer, but he made some rude remarks about her acting and dancing skills, which made Vidya completely devastated. The actress recalled the incident, “I did a Tamil film. I shot for it for two days and then I got replaced. I went with my parents to speak to the producer at his office in Chennai. He showed us some clips from the film and said to my parents, ‘Dekho, kisi angle se heroine dikhte hai (Does she look like a heroine from any angle)? She doesn’t know how to act or dance.’ I was thinking, first let me act and dance; I hardly shot for the film.”
The incident reflected on the insecurities she already has about herself, making her closer to hating herself and her acting skills. Further on the actress added saying, “For six months, I didn’t look at myself in the mirror because I felt ugly. If you want to reject someone, do that, but always be kind with your words because words have the power to be really damaging or nurturing. I will never forget that. It was an early lesson in life to be kind to people because he destroyed my self-image for six months.”
Just because the producers are the bank for money, they tend to pull any act they want, without thinking of the consequences it might have on the actor’s life.
Comment down if you think too that Bollywood should stop promoting such body image and embrace actors as how they are.
