“These photos of Parineeti Chopra will inspire you to hit the gym”
“Parineeti Chopra’s smokin’ hot new avatar!”
“Parineeti stuns all with sexy figure”
These are headlines across all news portals about Parineeti Chopra’s much hyped, new, fit avatar. On Wednesday afternoon, we were presented with several images of a fitter, stronger, grungy-er looking Chopra on her twitter timeline. In it, she’s seen rigorously posing working out, with motivational quotes such as, “Rise, Repeat” and “Lost excuses, found results” and “Leave the average behind”.
It would be lazy of us to say that Chopra’s weight loss journey began when she returned from London to join Yash Raj Films as a marketing executive. She admits in several interviews that prior to her Bollywood debut, she was overweight. However, in her first film, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl (2011), she charmed us all as the happy-go-lucky, moofat Delhi girl. Her weight didn’t matter then, and honestly, it should not matter now.
But it does.
Her real journey began when she suddenly vanished from the limelight after her last film Kill Dil in 2014. Rumours notwithstanding, Chopra claimed she needed a break to focus on her body and redo her newly-bought, sea-facing Bandra home. Around September this year though, she gave an interview to Hindustan Times, talking about her weight loss journey, after many appearances in ads and events with her revamped, thinner look. This was followed by a snippet in YRF’s web series Man’s World.
And bang! The next thing we know, Chopra’s Twitter timeline is filled with these brochure-type images of a fitter, stronger body. Don’t get us wrong, there isn’t an inkling of a doubt that she looks amazing, and more than that, she looks healthy and fit. It’s important to note that at a time when female actors look like they’ve been starving themselves for years, Chopra focused more on strength and health, rather than weight loss, in her twitter promotion. She admits in the above interview with HT that she took up Kalaripayattu to strengthen herself. This comes as a refreshing change and one must applaud her for focussing on the right aspects of fitness.
However, it is even more important to note that just because she looks amazing now, that does not mean she didn’t look amazing before. And with the risk of having a 1000 trolls step over this opinion, it must be said that when Chopra first hit the big screen, she was refreshing, different and a feisty young woman who didn’t care about her weight. Yes, she was struggling to lose it, and had her own story (much like most of us), but she was definitely overpowering everyone’s perception with her performances, and not with her weight loss journey.
She played a determined, Muslim girl from UP in Ishaqzaade with as much ease as an eccentric genius in the underrated Hasee Toh Phasee. Chopra has never made much about her weight, effortlessly slipping into roles that demand her emotions and acting ability. She was never a part of the skinny, model-looking, actress brigade.
She often reminded us of Adele, whose dismissal of weight came through best in the non existence of the matter. Adele’s voice was all that mattered, and similarly, Chopra’s fresh face (and curvy look) made her more relateable and finally, gave us a reason to believe that you don’t have to stick to the 36-24-36 memo to become a mainstream, commercial actress.
Until, she she did exactly that.
In order to understand the gravity of Chopra’s actions, you have to look beyond the argument, “So what? It’s her body, she can do whatever she likes with it”. Yes, it’s her body, and yes, she has full control over it. And no, it isn’t Chopra’s job to be the poster girl of a “real body” but she’s a celebrity, and a public figure.
Her actions have the ability to influence many minds, and when you take that into consideration, it is easy to see what this weight loss means. The fact that it matters to her to shed her “real body” image and replace it with a fitter version, when she stood up so strongly for it during her first few films, only means that she is giving into pressure. And much like Adele, she’s staring to become a (bollywood heroine) prototype. Such a pity.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with losing weight, hitting the gym and getting fit. Chances are, if you are inspired by Chopra and sign up for a gym membership, only good things will happen to you. However, when you put it out there for the world to see you’re making a statement, and you’re taking a stand. Whether she acknowledges this conformist stand or not is Chopra’s choice alone, as was her choice to get fit, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that she has successfully waved goodbye to her earlier image, and promoted exactly that on Twitter.
Allow us to remind you that there exists two other female actresses who have dealt with their weight solely depending on the roles they play. Huma Qureshi and Sonakshi Sinha are victims of weight-shaming as well, but they mould their look according to their characters. When Huma Qureshi played a Punjabi doctor in Luv Shuv Teh Chicken Khurana, she played a big-boned, full-sized woman, completely oblivious to any weight gain.
Alternatively, when Sonakshi Sinha had to train in MMA (mixed martial arts) for her upcoming action film Akira (directed by A Murgadoss) she did so without promoting her “new look” (which might we add, is quite fit). Maybe she will eventually, because can actors really run away from film promotions? But that will be related to a character, and a film that Sinha is a part of. Not because she’s had some profound discovery of what a perfect body should look like.
Now that’s a real role model.
In her debut film, Chopra plays a girl who is so depressed about a guy dumping her, she starts to eat unhealthy food, and gets caught in a whirlpool of binge eating, but desperately wanting to lose weight. The fact that the makers of the film chose to cast Chopra in this role is very telling of our standards of what makes a “perfect” body.
Outside of the film industry, Chopra in her earlier avatar would be considered completely normal looking. But life seems to come a full circle for her. From playing a real character (in Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl), of an insecure girl who literally feeds into her fears, to finally becoming the protoype and conforming, Chopra seems to have eaten into the dangerous notion that one must look a certain way in order to be a woman actor in the film industry.
Being curvy is not being average, Chopra. You were certainly not built that way, you were built in your own unique way, and we would like to point out that we loved it just the way it was. You chose to be rebuilt this way. And that’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with being fit. But there’s also nothing wrong with having a little extra curve here and there. And if you have the will to promote your weightloss journey, also know the responsibility of your actions.
While nobody can deny the hard work and determination that must have gone into getting into shape, personally, we prefer the real-looking, vivacious Parineeti Chopra of Ishaqzaade and not yet-another-actress who bit the dust and lost a tonne of weight.