I remember when I was much younger, I didn’t have any body-image issues. I was more on the plump side and I grew up watching actors like Rani Mukerji, Kajol and Preity who had fuller body types. The insecurity arose when Kareena Kapoor decided to go size zero for ‘Tashan’. All of a sudden everyone around me wanted to be as skinny as her.
It took a long time for Indian women to go from that phase of wanting to lose tremendous amounts of weight to become a size zero to accepting our bodies for what they are. Now if you look at female actors including Vidya Balan, Priyanka Chopra and even Bebo, you’ll find them rocking their increased waistlines and fuller arms like a boss.
‘Jersey’ actor Mrunal Thakur spoke about how she has been told multiple times that she looks like a ‘matka’. Because she has a pear-shaped body, where one’s lower body is broader than their upper body, she has been told many a time to lose weight from her lower body.
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Times Now quoted her saying:
“I have a pear-shaped body. My briefing was always like, ‘Mrunal, you need to cut down from your lower body.’ But excuse me, that’s my body type. If I cut down — I start losing weight from my face, then my upper body and then it would reach my lower body – I will still have that shape. So rather than people calling me matka and me feeling bad, I take a lot of pride in it.”
Mrunal further goes on to add how in the United States, people love pear-shaped bodies. It is like something that the Kardashians have – a small waist but bigger thighs and the rear.
“When I was in the US, people said a lot of women pay to get that body. When someone called me the Indian Kardashian, I was so happy that yes we need to celebrate. And now I have the confidence to post a picture and I just want to make sure that these trolls do not affect me,” she said.
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Own your pear-shaped bodies with pride, girls! – that’s what Mrunal Thakur has to say.
“I want to raise my voice because there are a lot of people, a lot of girls who have the same body type as I do. I just want to normalise and tell them that it’s okay to have a pear-shaped body and wear high-waisted pants and a cropped top. If they have that ‘matka’ shaped body, then own it, f***ing own it.”
Life is too short to obsess over what your body should look like. Live a little!