New Delhi: Vidya Balan, an actor, has made a strong case for body positivity. However, the actress needed a while to develop body acceptance and appreciation. Vidya recently opened up about her childhood struggles with body image in a YouTube interview with Luke Coutinho. The actor described how early dieting and fitness regimens that had a significant negative impact on her relationship with her body resulted from her mother's worries about her weight.
Vidya explained why her mother started her on a diet at a young age: "My mother had this fear that I was a chubby girl. So she was constantly doing things to make me lose weight because she grew up a big girl. She was scared about the fact that I would be judged like her. Parents are always worried for their children and I see that today. I used to be very angry with my mother, ‘Why does she make me go through the exercise regime? Why is she making me diet so early?’ Maybe it’s because she was worried for me. I grew up hating my body. I had developed hormonal issues very early on in my life because it was the rejection of the body.”
Talking about her journey to self-acceptance and reaching where she is today, Vidya said, "It’s taken me a lot of work to reach this stage. People always come and tell me, ‘You must not be exercising.’ And only if they knew that I love exercise and I am consistent at it because I love it. But for whatever reason, I don’t have the quintessential heroine body, I have not been able to figure that out. I have been through a time where I have put in all the effort and I have not seen the result. The journey of acceptance started around the time I was maybe 30-31 and it’s only been getting better.”
On the work front, Vidya Balan most recently portrayed CBI officer Mira Rao in the critically and commercially unsuccessful movie Neeyat. She will have a significant role in the upcoming movie Lovers from director Shirsha Guha Thakurta, which also stars Sendhil Ramamurthy, Ileana D'Cruz, and Pratik Gandhi.