Diet Paratha

With @diet_paratha, London girl Anita Chhiba is challenging and championing South Asian stereotypes, one Insta post at a time!

“To be honest, @diet_paratha was an account where I was just reposting vintage Bollywood posters. I’m from New Zealand and in 2017, when I created this handle, I felt the strange disconnect between my cultures. As an Indian, I’m Gujarati and being a New Zealander as well I didn’t really fit into either mould and that caused a strong sense of displacement,” says Londoner Anita Chhiba, 31.

Ironically, she didn’t connect to any of those Bollywood posts herself. “I felt it was a palatable way to appreciate the art form. Paired with that, through the wave of brown empowerment pages that were popping up on Instagram, I started discovering artists, stylists, musicians and activists from the diaspora who had similar values,” she says.

Talent hunting

Anita started the process of unearthing amazing talent, but the pandemic finally gave her the time to dedicate to it. “The side profile pieces I’ve done got really great traction and then people from everywhere started following me — from massive brands like Burberry and Vogue to Elle and I was like,

‘oh wow! I’m so happy that @diet_paratha is finally getting the recognition it deserves and that we as a people are also getting the recognition we deserve on a global scale’,” says Anita whose handle now has a following of 17k, at the time of going to press.

The name Diet Paratha is a play on the popular fashion watchdog handle Diet Prada. But it is not about cancelling the people. Rather, it is about celebrating the creativity of people. And even though there has been a change in perspective towards South Asians in the UK, Anita says there’s still work to be done in the fight for representation.

“WHAT I WANT NOW IS BRANDS SHOWING UP AS TRUE ALLIES AND NOT JUST USING US AS VISUAL REPRESENTATION PUPPETS” —ANITA CHHIBA