All my good roles have been of the fat girl, but I was never ridiculed
An overweight actor in films is often seen as comic relief — the funny character dispensable enough to have jokes cracked on. However, actor Delnaaz Irani says her experience has been quite the opposite.
“I’ve always been very comfortable in my skin and never faced a problem where people called me moti or bodyshamed me. I feel when you have a confident persona, your talent supports you. In fact, all my good roles — be it in films or TV — have been that of the fat girl or the plus-size friend, but I was never a subject of ridicule,” she asserts.
Citing the example of her character Sweetu in Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Irani explains,
“The description given to me was that of an overweight Punjabi girl, but it was more than that. I never felt that I was only this fat girl. In fact, people told me how glamorous I looked, and they still do.”
The 47-year-old believes that it’s all about how one feels mentally rather than physically. “It’s up to you how you change the perception and how you look at it. Aapko negativity mein rona and hauwaa banana hai ya usko positively lena hai, ye aapke upar hai. That’s what I’ve done all my life,” she adds.
Having said that, Irani says maybe being an actor makes it easier for her to deal with such situations as she knows how to manoeuvre around it. “Not everyone can do it... So, that’s where people like us come in the picture to tell them that they need to be confident,” she says.
Always one to motivate people on various levels, Irani recently gave a talk on body positivity. “I talk about body positivity but I’m not encouraging obesity. I talk about being healthy and being fit. Being fat or thin should never really be the standards by which one measures beauty. It’s important to be fit in mind as well as body… Exercise, keep yourself fit and eat right, but do not harrow yourself about being size zero or thin,” she says.