Vidya Balan opens up about the industry’s unrealistic beauty standards, says she always felt ‘fat’ even at her ‘thinnest’

When it comes to body-acceptance, Vidya Balan is the queen, an actor who gives no heed to the unrealistic beauty standards laid down by others for you. We have seen actors and actresses transform right before our eyes because it looks like ‘physical-appearance’ is the key to making big into the industry. This unrealistic set of beauty rules laid down by the industry isn’t going to apply for Vidya Balan who has proved us with her remarkable onscreen performances. That does not, however, mean that the actor is exempted from physical shame and the pressure to transform into something one is not.

Sitting down with Filmfare, Vidya, opened up about the how she has her own set of rules and abides by it. This clearly has to do with the demarcation of women, mostly on the ‘heavier side’ who are constantly pressured to lose the few pounds from the society, family members, industry and basically everyone who have come to accept the ‘beauty-standards’ laid down by the industry.

Regarding this concerning subject, Vidya told Filmfare, ‘’I rejected my body all my life. I worked hard at accepting myself. That acceptance isn’t complete yet. It’s still a long way. People don’t understand that when you grow up a fat girl, it doesn’t leave you.

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She also opened up about how the body you have is not always a matter of choice but a struggle, especially medical, she added, ‘’ I’ve had hormonal problems all my life. It’s probably because of the judgement I’ve carried around my body. When I was a teenager, people would tell me, ‘You’ve got such a pretty face, why don’t you lose some weight?’ It’s not a nice thing to say to anyone. Be it a child or a grown-up. So, I’d starve myself, I’d go through crazy exercise regimens and lose weight. Then the hormonal issue would settle for a bit before it reared its head again. I guess it was my body’s way of revolting because in wanting it to be what it was not, I was constantly rejecting it.

‘’There’s no machine as smart as your body. It’s the only machine that has emotional intelligence. So even at my thinnest, I’ve always felt fat. Weight loss, weight gain, weight loss, weight gain was my pattern for as long as I can remember. Years ago, I stopped watching my shots on the monitor at shoots because I’d look at the monitor and be thinking, ‘Am I looking fat?” she added.

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Vidya's statements are very encouraging for those fighting their inner demons of not being able to ‘become’ what others want you to become. Comment below and tell us. What do you think about her heartening statements?