Vidya Balan is not only a wonderful actor but also an advocate of standing against unrealistic beauty standards. She has even issued rules on how her pictures should be used. The actor has reportedly asked photographers and magazines to not re-touch her pictures as she doesn’t want to appear slimmer than she really is.
Celebrity photographer Dabboo Ratnani in a new interview revealed that Vidya Balan is comfortable in her own skin and doesn’t want re-touching to look slimmer.
“I try to achieve the best lighting on the set itself, thus relying as little as possible on the post-treatment of pictures. [Doing so is] all the more important with Vidya because she doesn’t like her images to be re-touched. She is comfortable in her own skin, and doesn’t want to be made slimmer for pictures. During magazine shoots, she tells the editorial team that the photos should only be colour-corrected and shared, without any re-touching,” Dabboo said.
“Say, if the flooring or the leaves in the background need colour correction, we do that. We don’t re-touch her image,” he added.
Vidya has talked about being body-shamed before. During the promotions of her film Sherni, she recalled how her body weight had become a ‘national issue.’
“I have had hormonal issues all my life. For the longest time, I hated my body. I thought it had betrayed me. On the days I was under the pressure of looking my best, I would bloat up and I would be so angry and frustrated,” she was quoted saying.
However, with time, Vidya began accepting herself. “I began to love and accept myself a little more each day and therefore, I became more acceptable to people. They began to shower me with love and accolades and appreciation and all of that,” she concluded.
