How about starting a ‘Big is Beautiful’ campaign?
By: Gauri Lankesh
A decade ago,Rakshita was the reigning queen of Sandalwood. Eye-catching, gifted and the excellent dancer that she was, every top male star in the Kannada film world wanted her in his film. Unfortunately for Rakshita, along with success came complacency. She quickly forgot discipline in diet and strictness in physical exercise. As a result, she started putting on weight.
Around the same time, a new entrant started to make waves in the industry. The neophyte Ramya was not just gorgeous and gifted, she was also extremely disciplined. Curiously, both of them had earlier auditioned to act in the debut film of a scion of the number one family in the Kannada film industry. Rakshita finally bagged the role and Ramya had to wait for her turn. Naturally, the new comer wanted retribution.
Rakshita soon realized that her position was quivering. Success can be a heady potion that disconnects a person from reality. So, instead of building some restraint and losing weight, she chose the easier option: liposuction. While her rival made great strides in the film industry, the ‘fatty’ Rakshita was losing her place due to liposuction sores, which not only ruined her costumes but entire shooting schedules. By the time the film industry had started to give up on Rakshita, she chose to wed and opt out of the race. Today, she is a wife and a mother of ‘hefty’ proportions.
Our body size is dictated firstly by our genes and secondly by our lifestyles. If those thingies called genes decide that we are going to be short or big-boned, there is pretty little that we can do about it. At best, we can put some physical effort and manage to be petite yet svelte, chubby yet cute.
The multi-billion fashion industry has been so successful in connecting success with physical appearance that everyone is being made conscious of their ‘body type’. On the same day that newspapers carried the news of Telugu actress Aarthi Agarwal’s death due to problems following a liposuction surgery, a leading newspaper carried fashion tips based on ‘body types’ (‘inverted triangle’, `boxy’, apple’, ‘pear’ and ‘hourglass’) of women. Another newspaper published an article on the different types of diets which are the latest fads.
Glossy fashion magazines with airbrushed images of ethereal-looking willowy females can not only cause heartburn but also immense self-loathing in susceptible women. Advertisements in which meagrely clad women pedal almost everything under the sun are no less harmful. According to the advertising world, it’s just not enough for women to be fair to be considered lovely, they must be ghostly white; not enough to have female organs but must be amply endowed. ‘You are worth it’ only if you are lily white, have plentiful curves and lustrous tresses.
In the glamorous world of films, the pressure on women to conform to such `high standards’ of beauty are immense. Aarthi Agarwal, who had Punjabi roots, was genetically big built. Though she did not make any headway in Bollywood – which likes its heroines to be wispy - she was a hit in the Telugu film industry which likes its women to be of ‘sizeable’ proportions.
Remember, a long time ago, Sridevi and Silk Smitha were much in demand for both their talent and their ‘thundering thighs’.
However, problems begin when the actress goes from being `big’ to `bigger’, as did Aarthi Agarwal. During this ‘weighty’ journey, a successful leading lady would have acted once with all the ‘A list’ heroes. Since most top heroes want a new eye candy for every film, even successful heroines rarely get a second chance with them. That is when they are pushed down to act with B list actors. Aarthi Agarwal’s downfall was no different.
In the decade that Aarthi Agarwal had spent in the Telugu film industry, she had experienced many ups and downs. Though she seems to have enjoyed the success, she appears to have been incapable of handling failure. According to news reports, she was so vulnerable that rumours of an affair had even pushed her towards attempting suicide. A failed marriage perhaps added to her woes.
She possibly associated her increasing body mass to the drying up of acting offers. And she probably even tried different things to lose weight. A few months ago, Aarthi Agarwal had even uploaded a photo of her sitting on a yoga mat on her Facebook page.
Maybe she was not satisfied with the results. In order to win the battle with the bulge, and to conform to these ‘standards’ of beauty, she went the liposuction way. And that finally did her in.
We have seen many campaigns over the last decade aimed to dispel notions about beauty, facial features, skin colour etc., perhaps, it’s time to defy the unrealistic ‘standards’ of beauty dictated by the ‘fashionistas’ of the ad world and launch a `Big is Beautiful’ movement.
The writer is an activist-journalist
A decade ago,
Around the same time, a new entrant started to make waves in the industry. The neophyte Ramya was not just gorgeous and gifted, she was also extremely disciplined. Curiously, both of them had earlier auditioned to act in the debut film of a scion of the number one family in the Kannada film industry. Rakshita finally bagged the role and Ramya had to wait for her turn. Naturally, the new comer wanted retribution.
Rakshita soon realized that her position was quivering. Success can be a heady potion that disconnects a person from reality. So, instead of building some restraint and losing weight, she chose the easier option: liposuction. While her rival made great strides in the film industry, the ‘fatty’ Rakshita was losing her place due to liposuction sores, which not only ruined her costumes but entire shooting schedules. By the time the film industry had started to give up on Rakshita, she chose to wed and opt out of the race. Today, she is a wife and a mother of ‘hefty’ proportions.
Our body size is dictated firstly by our genes and secondly by our lifestyles. If those thingies called genes decide that we are going to be short or big-boned, there is pretty little that we can do about it. At best, we can put some physical effort and manage to be petite yet svelte, chubby yet cute.
The multi-billion fashion industry has been so successful in connecting success with physical appearance that everyone is being made conscious of their ‘body type’. On the same day that newspapers carried the news of Telugu actress Aarthi Agarwal’s death due to problems following a liposuction surgery, a leading newspaper carried fashion tips based on ‘body types’ (‘inverted triangle’, `boxy’, apple’, ‘pear’ and ‘hourglass’) of women. Another newspaper published an article on the different types of diets which are the latest fads.
Glossy fashion magazines with airbrushed images of ethereal-looking willowy females can not only cause heartburn but also immense self-loathing in susceptible women. Advertisements in which meagrely clad women pedal almost everything under the sun are no less harmful. According to the advertising world, it’s just not enough for women to be fair to be considered lovely, they must be ghostly white; not enough to have female organs but must be amply endowed. ‘You are worth it’ only if you are lily white, have plentiful curves and lustrous tresses.
In the glamorous world of films, the pressure on women to conform to such `high standards’ of beauty are immense. Aarthi Agarwal, who had Punjabi roots, was genetically big built. Though she did not make any headway in Bollywood – which likes its heroines to be wispy - she was a hit in the Telugu film industry which likes its women to be of ‘sizeable’ proportions.
Remember, a long time ago, Sridevi and Silk Smitha were much in demand for both their talent and their ‘thundering thighs’.
However, problems begin when the actress goes from being `big’ to `bigger’, as did Aarthi Agarwal. During this ‘weighty’ journey, a successful leading lady would have acted once with all the ‘A list’ heroes. Since most top heroes want a new eye candy for every film, even successful heroines rarely get a second chance with them. That is when they are pushed down to act with B list actors. Aarthi Agarwal’s downfall was no different.
In the decade that Aarthi Agarwal had spent in the Telugu film industry, she had experienced many ups and downs. Though she seems to have enjoyed the success, she appears to have been incapable of handling failure. According to news reports, she was so vulnerable that rumours of an affair had even pushed her towards attempting suicide. A failed marriage perhaps added to her woes.
She possibly associated her increasing body mass to the drying up of acting offers. And she probably even tried different things to lose weight. A few months ago, Aarthi Agarwal had even uploaded a photo of her sitting on a yoga mat on her Facebook page.
Maybe she was not satisfied with the results. In order to win the battle with the bulge, and to conform to these ‘standards’ of beauty, she went the liposuction way. And that finally did her in.
We have seen many campaigns over the last decade aimed to dispel notions about beauty, facial features, skin colour etc., perhaps, it’s time to defy the unrealistic ‘standards’ of beauty dictated by the ‘fashionistas’ of the ad world and launch a `Big is Beautiful’ movement.
The writer is an activist-journalist
