Shape-shifting!
From shaving the inches to silence their critics to drastically altering their physique for the requirements of a role, shape-shifting is suddenly the big (pun not intended) thing in B-town tells VIRAJ SAWANT.
Even once ‘healthy’ heroines are now wand-slim. Kareena Kapoor, who ushered the Size Zero trend in Bollywood, had started out as pleasantly plump... Till she was mocked for her overly generous curves in her DON item number in 2006, and then shocked with her next, TASHAN, in which she flaunted a model-like skinniness! The scene in which she emerged from the water in a green bikini had jaws dropping – Bebo had lost 12 kilos with a combination of rigorous workouts, power yoga and a proper diet plan. Even after dropping 30 kilos Sonakshi Sinha couldn’t fit into the narrow demands of critics but the girl has learnt to handle fatshamers who jibe that the reason why there are so many solo shots of Sinha in her movies is because if she's in the frame, no one else can fit. “I am here to act and not be Size Zero,” she has claimed, completely confident in her skin. The story was different with Parineeti Chopra. “When I joined the industry in 2011, I was naive. I thought I'm here to act and that's all that matters, which is not true.”
Criticism for her chunky frame poured in. Years later, she heeded the advice of her mentor Aditya Chopra and took off on a sabbatical of sorts. She returned, slender, sexy and perfectly fit.“I have been made fun of because of my weight and I wanted to change it. I can see a jawline, I can see a collarbone. Today, these body-shamers are nowhere to be seen,” she exults. Bhumi Pednekar, who piled on the pounds for her role in DUM LAGA KE HAISHA, has now gone on to shed every unwanted ounce.
Not so Vidya Balan who, after struggling with weight issues, was told she had a medical condition which hindered weight loss. In fact, Vidya attempted something that no other actress had done before for a role - she gained 12 extra kilos for her role in THE DIRTY PICTURE to play the erotic South star, Silk.
If slim is the only shape actresses are required to be, it’s different for the men – actually, make that one man in particular – Aamir Khan. The award, if there was one, for maximum ‘structural changes’ must go to him. Sporting a different physiology in practically every film, he piled on 30 kilos for DANGAL this after he had acquired six-pack abs for his last release PK – and is currently slogging to achieve the kind of cuts he sported in GHAJINI! …See what we mean?