Nimrat Kaur Speaks About Her Experience With Body-Shaming After Gaining Weight

There have been several studies detailing the ill effects of body shaming. The constant bullying and teasing can have a mental and physical impact on the person being subjected to it. And, if you thought that instances of body-shaming are mostly isolated and do not exist among people from all walks of life, Bollywood actress Nimrat Kaur has a message worthy of your attention. The actress was required to gain weight for her role in the recently released film Dasvi and what followed was a flurry of unsolicited advice and comments from people around her, she said in a post.

The actress began the post with a collage depicting her weight loss and wrote, "Weigh on it...Swipe left for my thousand words this picture won't speak." 

In a lengthy note– shared in the form of photos – Nimrat Kaur spoke about the trolling she had to face after gaining the extra kilos. “In the age of heightened expectations regarding what we 'should' look like, at all times - gender, age and profession no bar, I'm sharing a small chapter from my life that brought with its learnings that shall last a lifetime. Bear with me, as unfortunately, there isn't a 'bite sized' version of this 10-month long journey," she began. 

Nimrat Kaur went on to explain, “Born with what's typically categorised a small to a medium body type, with Dasvi, came the requirement for me to size 'up'. The idea being to be as unrecognisable and physically as dissimilar from 'being Nimrat' as possible. There was no target number in mind, but by the end of trying to achieve the desired visual impact, I was a touch above 15 kilos from my usual body weight. Initially, I was rather petrified of an unseen reality I was going to have to own and embrace. But as I steadily and lovingly along with the support and encouragement of my loved ones around me began right conversations with myself, I began relishing the process of becoming Bimla,” referring to her character.

And along the way she noticed changes in the way people reacted around her. “Ever so often, watching me eat high-calorie meals already being a few sizes bigger, some people around me felt they had the right to comment on what they thought I was doing wrong. It would be a snide remark, an uncalled-for joke or simply an unsolicited piece of advice on what I should be eating instead of a dessert I was enjoying very much. This voyeuristic license and entitled permission is what came to the forefront,” she wrote. 

"On purpose, not always would I declare the 'why' behind what I was looking like or consuming. But always did I observe the ease with which people made my 'larger than usual' body and/or meal their business,” she added. Shedding light on some of the many reasons that could contribute to weight loss, Nimrat Kaur said that she could have been unwell, under medication, or hormonally battling something. She could even "quite simply very happy to eat and be whatever size that was."

Explaining her intent behind the post, “I share this to add to the larger dialogue of how we could all do with more mindfulness, sensitivity and empathy. Especially towards those who don't fit in the myopic, pigeonhole prototype of what the 'norm' expect them to be - whether it's being too dark, too thin, too short, too fat or too any of these berating measuring scales from the lens of the conditioning they come from. Recognise that everything they say and observe is a reflection of a mindset. Not who they're beholding."

Read the complete note here: