Radhikka Madan on facing body-shaming: I was called too fat, then got thin to the bones | Hindustan Times

Actor Katrina Kaif recently faced criticism for her postpartum weight gain, and actor Radhikka Madan expresses solidarity with her. She insists that being a woman in itself brings barrage of judgement on looks, and she herself has been a victim of body-shaming. "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,” she shares.But it was realising what actually mattered that changed her perspective. The actor adds, “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.”Watch the entire chat with Radhikka Madan here: While she acknowledges that trolls would continue their criticism and one should ignore that, especially young girls who depend on social media validation in today’s age, Radhikka Madanadmits it’s 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. So, if I am sitting in a classroom with a unibrow and some facial hair, I will never feel enough as I am not that ideal woman. We have to realise that the idea of a perfect woman is fed to us,” she says.Radhikka adds, “I find the idea of loving yourself a bit too cliche, but you have to accept yourself and have fun. Find your own quirks. 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.”The actor admits the journey to acceptance is long, chaotic and confusing. “But be on this journey of finding yourself, your ground, and start by accepting yourself because you are like a snowflake,” she ends.