Neha Dhupia: People at film parties would start giving fitness advice on their own, I didn’t want it

Actor Neha Dhupia says there is a lot of pressure on female actors to look a certain way.

Neha Dhupia has been living her life on her own terms, without caring about what others think, be it her career choices, or now getting back into a shape she desired. But she shares that others definitely had a lot to say, and sometimes even give unwarranted advice.

Actor Neha Dhupia

The pressure on female actors to look a certain way, is real, she says, “There are lots of times when you go to even a film party. Whatever you do, every two minutes somebody in the room will walk up to you and start giving you fitness advice. Somebody would say ‘aap yeh kar lo, you can lose weight, get on this diet, have some great trainers’... I am not asking for advice! I just wanted to be left alone, and take my time. I put on 23kgs, I am now down the same weight. I was happy in my skin.”

She goes on to add, “Now when I look back at my pics, I feel ‘ughh’, it was too much for me. But I was comfortable then. I have always been a runner. When people were giving me advice ‘marriage, yeh kar lo, abhi bauhaut ho gaya’, there was too much BS flying around. Many were taking jabs, I was getting trolled about my weight . It didn’t matter. Bright people would start commenting my weight gain. Nameless, faceless trolls, keep them aside. It affected me when intelligent people would do the same. If you can do this to get under my skin, what are you going to do to other plus size women? One one hand you say the film industry is an inclusive place and want us to be comfortable.”