May 18, 2012

"Many in India are asking whether the woman routinely referred to as the most beautiful in the world..."

"... and who occupies a place in Indian popular culture akin to Kate Middleton or Victoria Beckham, has an obligation to her fans to lose weight."

6-months after giving birth, Aishwarya Rai hasn't found her way back to that pre-pregnancy look.

One website posted a video, complete with elephant sound effects, entitled "Aishwarya Rai's shocking weight gain", which has been seen more than 500,000 times. "She is a Bollywood actress and it is her duty to look good and fit," suggested one commenter. Another added: "She needs to learn from people like Victoria Beckham who are back to size zero weeks after their delivery."

The criticism has started a debate about Bollywood's attitude towards women and motherhood. "There is a glorification of motherhood in India and Indian cinema," said cinema professor Shohini Ghosh. "But people are confused because they don't know whether to glorify Aishwarya in her new motherhood or lament that she is not looking like a runway model."

27 comments:

FleetUSA said...

She is indeed a beauty but if she doesn't want to go through something an arbitrary critic and section of the population might like, that's her decision. If she gets fewer roles, she knows it. Her husband is a very popular star so that between his income and her residuals she may not care what others think.

edutcher said...

Since we don't have a body shot of how she looks, it's hard to judge, but this sounds like the Lefty media beating on her because she doesn't look like she just walked out of Auschwitz.

Maybe she likes the way she looks with a little more to love.

ricpic said...

Those midriff baring Indian saris are pitiless toward even slightly overweight women.

paul a'barge said...

Parody, right?

Joke, right?

You got articles about a woman's body post-birth and nowhere are there pictures?

Please. When journalists do this it turns their work into nothing-burgers.

Pics or it's b*llsh*t.

paul a'barge said...

OK. Someone has to do the lifting:

click

click

click

pm317 said...

She was never all that skinny, none of the Indian women actors are. Take a look!. She is married to the younger guy in the video. The older guy is his dad, a famous actor from my time but still going strong. Apparently this song was a big hit in Brazil.

{Is Ann visiting India?}

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

If it's true we've lost the most beautiful woman in the world, I say we round up some Achaeans, build us a large wooden badger, and sack Mumbai.

Balfegor said...

paul a'barge:

That puts it in better context. I can see why her fans are complaining, but really, it's her choice. She doesn't have to lose weight if she doesn't feel like it. She's almost 40 anyhow.

ricpic said...

Based on the photos a'barge posts the most beautiful woman in the world is a yenta.

prairie wind said...

Just one more reason to be happy not being famous.

Anonymous said...

paul a'barge said...

OK. Someone has to do the lifting:

click

click

click


___________________________

Kirstie Alley is Indian?
5/18/12 12:33 PM

Blue@9 said...

Seriously? WTF is wrong with people. The woman's almost 40 and she had a baby. Let her enjoy being fat.

Nolanimrod said...

If your plumber installs a stylish new bathroom for you does he have an obligation to go on being a plumber for the rest of his life?

Synova said...

Kirstie Alley is pretty when she's fat, too. (As is Delta Burke, for that matter.)

Granted, there are some horrific pictures out there of Kirstie Alley sans make-up and wearing a tent on a bad hair day.

Kate Middleton looks like a concentration camp survivor (seriously... she needs to put on five pounds) and Victoria Beckham is almost as bad.

Synova said...

Size zero is a goal for an adult woman?

Can't we just sort of go crazy here and be happy with a size two?

Titus said...

Do you know they never show any sex in Bollywood movies?

I think kissing is pretty taboo in the movies as well.

They do love to dance though.

edutcher said...

Obviously, there's a point where a woman stops being attractive if she gains weight (applies to men, too, obviously) and, since she's in show biz, that's going to hurt her, but I really don't know the culture there.

How much is slim valued?

The Blonde and I met a woman in Hawaii who ran a jewelry store and she told us she never had a better time than she did in Bali because the women there are small and delicately built, but a larger, more buxom woman is something of an exotic and the men just flocked to her.

I leave it to our world travelers to say...

Lyssa said...

I do so love it when people try to proclaim that it is our culture that is obsessed with women's weight and appearances.

Also, wow, that woman really is stunning.

Lyssa said...

From the pics, it does look like she probably over-gained in pregnancy, which a lot of women do - they see it as an excuse to eat and eat and eat, when really you only need a few hundred extra calories a day (of course, maybe she kept to a really strict diet before that, so any change was a big one). I don't think pregnancy usually makes a woman gain that much in her face.

That said, yeah, she still looks better than most women, but yeah, that's going to hurt her career, but hey, maybe she's got other things to worry about now, anyway.

crosspatch said...

I have a problem with the whole "obligation to her fans" thing. Even the idea that she has any kind of "obligation to her fans" is insane. She didn't ask them to like her, and now she's somehow "obligated" to them? So someone taking an interest to you is some sort of a commitment?

I'm sorry but, no, she has no "obligation" of any sort to her fans.

FleetUSA said...

Further to PM317's comment. The clip comes from a very funny Bollywood movie called Bunty aur Babli. It contains one episode in which an exaggerated American couple think they are renting the Taj Mahal from some Indian officials (who are scam artists).

LordSomber said...

I didn't realise the Third World had First World Problems until now.

Joe said...

The obligation to her fans things is bullshit, but perhaps she may be obligated to her husband. If her husband's fine with that, great, but let's not lie and pretend she's still lovely because she's just plain gotten fat. (That isn't having a baby fat; that's sitting on your ass and eating everything fat.)

Cincinnatus said...

Mitchell wins da Internetz for the day.

Methadras said...

Beautiful indeed. The most beautiful? Uh no. That moniker goes to the mrs.

The Crack Emcee said...

Many in India are asking whether the woman routinely referred to as the most beautiful in the world...and who occupies a place in Indian popular culture akin to Kate Middleton or Victoria Beckham, has an obligation to her fans to lose weight.

Wait - who are Kate Middleton and Victoria Beckham to us again?

Whatever.

The answer is a resounding, "yes," and she should also be forced to fuck in public and sacrifice herself to a volcano for good luck.

Come on:

Ask me something hard,...

Geraldus Maximus said...

Forgive me. I literally can't help it. But, I so love Bollywood. Here is the best music number I've ever seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdyC1BrQd6g