Bollywood actress Radhika Apte has played many memorable and powerful characters. Recently she has been in the news for the film ‘Saali Mohabbat’. In the movie, the actress has played a character who is often underestimated because of her ‘looks’. He has given his reaction on this.
Radhika Apte talked openly about the standards of beauty. In an interview with India Today, the actress opened up on weight concerns, aging and some of the pain left by an industry obsessed with surface perfection.
There is concern about weight- Radhika
Radhika Apte told India Today, ‘Sometimes it really bothers me, the weight going up and down, the swelling, all that… I won’t lie to you, it does. I think, ‘Oh, I need to lose all the weight I’ve gained.’ I think about it all the time, believing that this worry troubled him because it conflicted with his own beliefs. He further said, ‘I never had this problem before and I thought, where is this coming from? Because it doesn’t match my value system. I believe in natural beauty, and I will always stand by it.
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This internal conflict ultimately forced him to seek therapy. Where he found the root of this worry in a major professional setback, which took away a career-changing role from him.
The actress recalled, ‘I was offered a very big project. It was written for me. I went on a trip, and I told them I wouldn’t be on a diet. I may come back having gained a few kilos, but I will lose it. I was young, my metabolism was very good, I was a dancer, I didn’t need to lose weight.
I lost a big opportunity- Radhika
What happened after this was very bad. Apte said, ‘I came back and he got scared. He did a photoshoot with me, sat with my pictures, and said, ‘She’s too fat.’ And they fired me just like that. That film became a big hit, and the careers of the actors who replaced him took off. Apte said, ‘For just three or four kilos of weight, I lost an opportunity that could have changed my career.’ It took years to understand this loss.
Radhika further said, ‘It was a blessing in disguise. Later, I realized that it made me who I am today. It made me stronger. Now I can say with more courage that I will not accept these thoughts. I will not follow your ideas about beauty.
The actress told that she shot two films just three months after giving birth to the child, without trying to hide herself or make herself look younger. He said, ‘When I shot two films, it had been three months since I had a child. I was fatter than before and I thought, I will go in front of the camera, and I will go in front of the camera proudly. And I did so. These terrible and impossible beauty rules, insecurities, obsession with age, it’s for everyone’s mental health. It really is.’
Question raised on aging
Apte also questioned the double standards regarding ageing, saying, ‘When men age, they age like fine wine. When women get older, they just get older. They’re not treated the same, right?’
For Apte, the issue goes beyond cinema. We are very afraid of growing old. Oh my God, this is something you can’t change. The way we look at beauty now is very superficial, very shallow, we are really not in a good place.
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