Sonali Bendre recalls being body-shamed in the 90s: ‘Every producer was trying to fatten me up’

Sonali Bendrewho has been vocal about celebrities often facing harsh criticism about their appearance, recently discussed her experiences with body shaming during her early days in the Hindi film industry.
Sonali revealed that she was subjected to body shaming by numerous producers who pressured her to gain weight to fit into the beauty standards prevalent in the 90s.”When I came into the industry, heroines didn’t used to be this skinny. Every producer was trying to fatten me up all the time,” Sonali told Hauterrfly.
She recalled how producers would bluntly comment, “eat eat eat, bahut patli hai” (she is too thin), pointing out the pressure to have a curvier body type. “They wanted curves. At that time, they wanted women who were curvaceous and voluptuous and who had curls in their hair. And I was straight black hair and I was skinny,” she added.

Despite the industry’s expectations, Sonali Sonali stressed the importance of feeling confident and beautiful in one’s body, regardless of society’s standards for what is considered attractive. “People might have set a norm of what is good-looking and what isn’t, but you have to feel confident and feel beautiful in your body,” she stated.

On the work front, Sonali will be soon seen in the season two of the newsroom drama The Broken News. The show also stars Jaideep Ahlawat, and Shriya Pilgaonkar. Directed by Vinay Waikul, it will start streaming on May 3. A couple of days ago, Sonali celebrated 25 years of her action thriller film Sarfaroshstarring Aamir Khan in the lead, by sharing a nostalgic video from the movie.