August 27, 2019 at 01:56AM
"You know, people keep asking me 'How are you so confident?' It really bothers me. Comedian Supriya Joshi says when you ask somebody that question, you automatically assume that they don't have the right to be confident! It's like people like them should not be confident because society has decided on certain norms. How can you, no how dare you be confident, you are FAT! How dare you love yourself? How dare you be free? How dare you chill out on the beach in a bikini?" she says, as soon as I tell her about our theme of freedom, especially freedom to be yourself.
That's actor Rytasha Rathore for you, whose debut TV series Badho Bahu won her a nomination for ITA Award for Best Actor—Female. The actor who has broken all stereotypes, says she wonders how people can say "Aap toh bade bold type ho." Her immediate go-to response is, "What is bold? I am not a font, I am a person just trying to be myself!"
Upsetting feelings apart, the 25-year-old feels that having a good time and laughing at oneself is an absolute necessity. "Ugggghhh! If we don't laugh, then kya hoga? You know it is like those stickers that had become popular on Facebook a few years ago. Life's a joke anyway, so why take it seriously? It is extremely important to laugh at oneself, with oneself, and near oneself," she says.
It is the very love and support of her family and friends that boosted her confidence in her formative years. "I never felt any pressure to fit in, never due to my size. My parents and family members have always supported my oddities and my weirdness. Apart from that in my formative years I had a lot going for me, including extra-curricular activities. That's when I started acting in plays and knew I had found the one thing I was good at. It was the positive reinforcement I needed in my teenage anxiety stage," she says. She points out that those years solidified her personality.
Once she knew that being an actor was her calling, she was sure she wanted to study it, which took her back to her country of birth—Singapore. She moved to Mumbai when she was in her third grade and went back for three years to study drama at the LASALLE College of the Arts. As she confesses, it was an experience of a lifetime. "The fundamentals of theatre lie in shedding inhibitions. Although I possessed the feeling of being comfortable with myself, drama school enhanced it in a big way. Studying acting is very different from studying a degree in any other subject, because it basically involves studying yourself and other people, studying bodies and minds. In such a space, for three years I was with the same 10 people, who had seen each other at their best and worst," she says.
And kill she did, the internet, when she posted a slo-mo of herself frolicking on a beach. She scrolls down on her screen and finds the post to read out the caption: "If you go to the beach and don't take a fake slo-mo baywatch run toh zindagi adhuri reh jaayegi." And why not? This has always been her attitude when it comes to life.
"The audiences went crazy looking at this avatar of Komal from Badho Bahu. Lots of people, especially girls, on social media wondered how I could wear a bikini, and I was like, why not? That's always been my attitude towards experiences, and it's the reason I chose to take up the TV series when it fell into my lap at 22. I then realised that people have such intense body-image and weight related issues! I had my own, but I had no idea that it's so huge," she says.
Even when she said yes to the TV series, her idea was that it's not every day that writer write characters for people who "look" like her. "I knew I was picking from a very small pool in any case, so I went for it. Initially I was sceptical. Of course because she is a fat girl so nobody wants to marry her!' After I started working, I gradually realised it is one of the biggest problems in India," says the spunky actor. Parents in our country are stressed for their 16- and 17-year-old daughters' marriages even if they are slightly on the heavier side. It's around that time that she started appreciating the fact that many girls were able to break out of their shells after seeing her images. At one point she had major issues with her 'fat' arms and 'flabby' stomach. She admits she still has them, but now, she has gotten to a place where she gives them a pep talk saying, "You are good arms, I love you!"
Does that work? "Well, the fat isn't going to go anywhere till I commit to working out, or spend a lot of money on an insanely good trainer. But you don't have to hate your body, I never have. Anyway it is so tough when the world makes you feel smaller than you are, so you can't make yourself feel small. You have to be your own cheerleader."
"You know, people keep asking me 'How are you so confident?' It really bothers me. Comedian Supriya Joshi says when you ask somebody that question, you automatically assume that they don't have the right to be confident! It's like people like them should not be confident because society has decided on certain norms. How can you, no how dare you be confident, you are FAT! How dare you love yourself? How dare you be free? How dare you chill out on the beach in a bikini?" she says, as soon as I tell her about our theme of freedom, especially freedom to be yourself.
That's actor Rytasha Rathore for you, whose debut TV series Badho Bahu won her a nomination for ITA Award for Best Actor—Female. The actor who has broken all stereotypes, says she wonders how people can say "Aap toh bade bold type ho." Her immediate go-to response is, "What is bold? I am not a font, I am a person just trying to be myself!"
Upsetting feelings apart, the 25-year-old feels that having a good time and laughing at oneself is an absolute necessity. "Ugggghhh! If we don't laugh, then kya hoga? You know it is like those stickers that had become popular on Facebook a few years ago. Life's a joke anyway, so why take it seriously? It is extremely important to laugh at oneself, with oneself, and near oneself," she says.
It is the very love and support of her family and friends that boosted her confidence in her formative years. "I never felt any pressure to fit in, never due to my size. My parents and family members have always supported my oddities and my weirdness. Apart from that in my formative years I had a lot going for me, including extra-curricular activities. That's when I started acting in plays and knew I had found the one thing I was good at. It was the positive reinforcement I needed in my teenage anxiety stage," she says. She points out that those years solidified her personality.
Once she knew that being an actor was her calling, she was sure she wanted to study it, which took her back to her country of birth—Singapore. She moved to Mumbai when she was in her third grade and went back for three years to study drama at the LASALLE College of the Arts. As she confesses, it was an experience of a lifetime. "The fundamentals of theatre lie in shedding inhibitions. Although I possessed the feeling of being comfortable with myself, drama school enhanced it in a big way. Studying acting is very different from studying a degree in any other subject, because it basically involves studying yourself and other people, studying bodies and minds. In such a space, for three years I was with the same 10 people, who had seen each other at their best and worst," she says.
And kill she did, the internet, when she posted a slo-mo of herself frolicking on a beach. She scrolls down on her screen and finds the post to read out the caption: "If you go to the beach and don't take a fake slo-mo baywatch run toh zindagi adhuri reh jaayegi." And why not? This has always been her attitude when it comes to life.
"The audiences went crazy looking at this avatar of Komal from Badho Bahu. Lots of people, especially girls, on social media wondered how I could wear a bikini, and I was like, why not? That's always been my attitude towards experiences, and it's the reason I chose to take up the TV series when it fell into my lap at 22. I then realised that people have such intense body-image and weight related issues! I had my own, but I had no idea that it's so huge," she says.
Even when she said yes to the TV series, her idea was that it's not every day that writer write characters for people who "look" like her. "I knew I was picking from a very small pool in any case, so I went for it. Initially I was sceptical. Of course because she is a fat girl so nobody wants to marry her!' After I started working, I gradually realised it is one of the biggest problems in India," says the spunky actor. Parents in our country are stressed for their 16- and 17-year-old daughters' marriages even if they are slightly on the heavier side. It's around that time that she started appreciating the fact that many girls were able to break out of their shells after seeing her images. At one point she had major issues with her 'fat' arms and 'flabby' stomach. She admits she still has them, but now, she has gotten to a place where she gives them a pep talk saying, "You are good arms, I love you!"
Does that work? "Well, the fat isn't going to go anywhere till I commit to working out, or spend a lot of money on an insanely good trainer. But you don't have to hate your body, I never have. Anyway it is so tough when the world makes you feel smaller than you are, so you can't make yourself feel small. You have to be your own cheerleader."
