Play it again, Sam
How actor Sameera Reddy became a champion of relatability, wellness and body positivity
In the decade between 2000 and 2010, actress Sameera Reddy starred both in films as well as the dreams of a vast number of men. Social media was not a major part of most people’s lives then, yet in every photograph, Sameera was pictureperfect.
So, it strikes you as ironic that today, when social media and filters are everything, her photographs are the very opposite of what they used to be.
Her hair is grey and untamed. There’s not a speck of make-up on her face. Her figure flaunts more curves than you’d expect any actor to have. And her biggest fans aren’t men, but women of all ages who are grateful to see a woman so real. How did an actress who was once so selfconscious about the way she looked turn into one of the country’s biggest icons of body positivity today?
Sister act
When Sameera was a teen, she was a bundle of insecurities. With two popular older sisters—former actor Meghna Reddy and model and VJ Sushma Reddy—she always struggled with self-confidence.
“It put me in a bit of a hole,” she says, “and made it harder for me.”
Her sisters were supportive, but Sameera wasn’t comfortable in her own body. “When you grow up plump, you equate yourself and your self-worth with the way you look,” she says.
This feeling of being constantly judged was why, when she entered Bollywood, Sameera was the pickiest of celebrities. “I couldn’t sleep without a particular hair-tie and I needed a lip mask, and I had 1,000 creams,” she laughs.
Ever Reddy
It was after she had her first child that Sameera’s life changed.
“When Hans was born, I became huge,” she explains. “I was 104 kgs and just couldn’t deal with it. I reached a point of almost self-loathing and realised then that I really didn’t love myself at all.”
That’s when she decided to change the narrative. “I just had to have the conviction that people could keep judging me, but I owed it to myself to keep evolving,” she says.
The first step was to show people the real her with unfiltered pictures on social media. “I had some very cool reactions and some very harsh reactions,” she muses, “like, ‘Why are you doing this?’”
She even lost followers. But slowly, Sameera built a loyal following of 1.4 million on Instagram. “The trolls came and went,” she reflects. “And I started talking about how I feel about my body.”
The response was incredible. More importantly, she is thanked by women of all ages for addressing their insecurities.
Brands, too, have realised her potential as a body positive activist and advocate. More recently, she also became an ambassador for a clothing brand with her husband. In fact, Sameera now has significantly more clout than when she was acting full-time.
“I’m not who I was 10 years ago, and for that, I’m extremely grateful,” she says.
Women come up to me, give me hugs and tell me they love me. It feels so good when a woman gives you a compliment! SAMEERA REDDY, Actor