Other than her acting prowess, the one thing that Vidya Balan has always been under scanner for is her weight.
In a recent interview with Filmfare, the Parineeta actor, who turned 40 last month, opened up about her life-long battle with body-shaming. “I’ve had hormonal problems all my life. It’s probably because of the judgment I’ve carried around my body. When I was a teenager, people would tell me, 'You’ve got such a pretty face, why don’t you lose some weight?’ It’s not a nice thing to say to anyone. Be it a child or a grown-up. So, I’d starve myself, I’d go through crazy exercise regimens and lose weight. Then the hormonal issue would settle for a bit before it reared its head again.
"Weight loss, weight gain, weight loss, weight gain was my pattern for as long as I can remember. Years ago, I stopped watching my shots on the monitor at shoots because I’d look at the monitor and be thinking, 'Am I looking fat?" she told Filmfare.
Vidya says it has taken her a lot of learning over several years to accept her body the way it is and not get bogged down by all the criticism that comes her way for not being a certain body type. "When people tell me why don’t you start exercising, I want to say f**k you! How do you know I haven’t been exercising? Do you know how hard I exercise? Do you know what challenges I’ve been facing?”
Talking about her most difficult years, she added, "Do you know that my hormonal problem has made it impossible for me to lose weight for years in between? Not just that, there was a period in between when the more I’d work out, the more I’d put on?”
To all those struggling with body negativity, Vidya has some wisdom to share. “People would insinuate that you must be eating unhealthy or that you’re lazy. And these things stick with you. It would anger me no end. I kept wanting people to stop judging me. But over time, I realised that people judge you/your body only if you do,” she said.
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