Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone To Priyanka Chopra: Top Actresses Who Got Body-Shamed On Social Media

Social media can be a tough place for celebs, especially now with shutterbugs following actors almost everywhere. Not just struggling stars but our very own A-listers too have faced trolls and haters commenting on how they look, what they wear to even their personal choices. This reached a new low when trolls targeted new mom Deepika Padukone, alleging that she was faking her pregnancy. Well, to shut them all, the stunner never really paid any attention to negativity and continued doing what she did best. Today, let's take a look at actresses who were body-shamed on social media and also some who faced it personally while working on a project.

(Pic Courtesy: Instagram)

Not once or twice but Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has been dealing with the troll machines commenting on her weight gain and fashion choices for long. However, the former beauty queen does not really get bothered by such mean comments and never really pays any heed to any of it. Recently, Aishwarya Rai, who is the global ambassador for luxury brand L'Oreal, attended the L'Oreal Paris Fashion Week along with her daughter Aaradhya Bachchan. Aishwarya was brutally trolled for her outfit and was also body-shamed for her appearance.

One of the finest actresses in Hindi cinema, Vidya Balan too has had to deal with the haters commenting on her weight gain. Vidya Balan told Indian Express, "Before every film, I would get asked by the producers and directors if I could shed some weight. And I have been going through some health challenges for a long long time. So it was next to impossible. Finally four to five years ago, when the director said this to me, I said, ‘Please, I am not going to be the body you need me to be. You need to go to the body you need.’ I find this absolutely ridiculous. Because the part was written with me in mind. So why this insistence? What is this obsession with only thin being desirable and acceptable?"

She added that despite her trying, for some reason, the weight loss was not happening. “Not like I wasn’t trying to shed weight. Growing up I wanted to be thin. I began to love and accept myself. It has been a very important journey,” she said.

At the Agenda Aaj Tak in 2022, she addressed the issue and said, “If you want to make a change in your life, if you want to be fitter, if you would like to improve your health, if you would like to improve your stamina, and somebody is motivating you, please take that positively. Body shaming, done negatively by trolls for no good reason, is to be ignored.”

She told Elle, “I started doing kalaripayattu with a trainer who would come home. It’s a martial art form and all it requires is an empty room. Once I lost weight, I started going to the gym again because now I feel like it. My workouts are more focused now.”

The actress recently opened up about being body-shamed at the start of her acting career. “The pressure pump started after the films released and things were written. Then I was like, they are comparing me in my first film to my mother who has done 200 films. And they would say a lot about my baby fat. ‘Oh she has so much baby fat'. I had, I was 18, those cheeks were there. But they looked cute in those roles, the kind of roles that I did, I thought they looked nice,” She told Zoom. 

Sonakshi Sinha too has faced trolls commenting on her weight gain almost on every social media post of her or movie appearance. During the promotions of Double XL, the actress told Firstpost, “I was an overweight child. I don’t remember being on the lower side of the scale. I used to get teased a lot in school and a lot of name calling used to happen. But at that point of time, I feel I was way more confident because I believed that there were many other things that I was good at like I was very good at sports.”

"Even after I became an actor, the people around me spoke a lot about my weight and that kind of initially made me feel like asking that why are people ignoring the work that I am doing. But one thing that people never stopped talking about was my weight. So, beyond a point I also got tired. I was someone who has always projected a very healthy body image. Growing up I didn’t have a role model who would tell me that it’s okay to do things at a pace that I wanted to and to look the way you look," she added.

The global icon too has faced online trolls on many occasions. She shared how once she was body-shamed for not adhering to unrealistic beauty standards. During an appearance on the chat show, The View, Priyanka said, "There is such a false perception about what women should look like and what our bodies should look like. Especially when you are in the business, you put on a couple of pounds and people are like..body shaming you. It happens. Christmas happens to all of us. I am an Indian. I have Holi, I have Diwali, I have a hundred holidays and my body fluctuates and you know what I am fine with it."

Deepika Padukone was once body-shamed for a black and white midshot for Vanity Fair UK - the jewellery edition magazine. Users felt she looked too thin, ranging from "Dead body" to "anorexic." She faced trolling when netizens resorted to derogatory remarks about her body, questioning the authenticity of her baby bump after she announced pregnancy.