Radhikka Madan has often spoken about the challenges of working in an industry where actors face constant scrutiny over their appearance. She has now spoken about her experience with body-shaming after gaining 15 kg for her debut film Pataakha. The actor also revealed that trying to meet others' expectations took a toll on her health.
"I had gained 15 kgs for Pataakha, and I was losing that weight through Shiddat and Angrezi Medium. I was told that I was 'too fat. Heroine kaise banegi ye'. I kept losing weight and shooting back-to-back, and fully became like bones. It started affecting my health, so I took a break,” Radhikka said in an interview with Hindustan Times.
She added, "Earlier, I was too fat, now I was too thin, and in between, I was neither here nor there. I asked myself why am I trying to please people when they will never be happy? So, I started focusing on feeling healthy rather than chasing a particular body size. Once you do that, others' opinions don't affect you as you become wiser. You don't know what insecurity they [critiques] are coming from. But I have that security of knowing that now, I am chasing health.”
Radhikka Madan acknowledged that online criticism is unlikely to stop and people should learn to look past it. However, she admitted that doing so is easier said than done.
“Us time pe aisa hota nahi hai because we have this manicured idea and this burden, especially on girls, about how to look and what's a perfect size. And if you aren't fitting in that, you are going wrong. That conditioning comes from childhood as you see such women only on magazine covers. We have to realise that the idea of a perfect woman is fed to us,” she said.
Radhikka claimed that while the idea of self-love may sound clichéd, accepting oneself and embracing individuality are important. She recalled, "In school, I even had a unibrow and was really hairy, but because my parenting was quite positive, I was hyped so much that I felt people don't realise but I am beautiful.
“I had friends but I never felt the need for their validation to be seen. So, even when my unibrow went away and people started noticing me, I judged them because I felt the same as before.”
On the work front, Radhikka Madan was last seen in Lust Stories 3. She played the role of Sailee Vaidya in the segment directed by Shakun Batra, opposite Ali Fazal.
