If you like to watch Indian TV shows, the serial Badho Bahu would most probably ring a bell. The show narrates the story of an overweight girl waiting to get married and has quite a popular fan base. Rytasha Rathore, who essays the pivotal role of Komal Lakhan Singh Ahlawat in the serial recently shared how she had to face criticism for her weight and how sexist the television industry, much like other work spaces, is. Sharing an incident, she revealed how her hairdresser was relentlessly persuaded by a stalker and how the 21-year-old finally quit her job out of her fear while the boy continued as of nothing had happened. She also spoke about how people fat-shamed her. But, fighting against all odds, has "finally fallen in love" with herself and "is not going to let the world’s idea of what’s ‘beautiful’ let her think otherwise,. She shared her story with Humans of Bombay page and it will inspire you in more ways than one. Read her full post here. “I play Badho on a show called Badho Bahu, where I portray a 100 KG girl, wanting to get married. The show focuses on a small town in India and the entire set up is so different from how I’ve been brought up — it’s so real. I work on a set where there are 3 women and a 100 men. 1 of these women is my hair didi, who’s a young girl of about 21. Over the past few months, she’s been hit on and harassed by so many men on set and in particular by 1 man. He kept professing his love for her, she kept declining but he didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. He thought it was ‘romantic’ to burn his hand for her — and then went upto her and said, ‘for every burn mark I have, I will stab you those many times for rejecting me’. We complained to our show authorities, but before any action was taken, she quit out of fear while her stalker is going about his job as though nothing happened. This incident really made an impact on me. I felt like the bubble I’d been brought up in, had burst. We’re raised to believe that men and women are equals, right? But in the past year, I’ve realised that we’re the tiny percentage of people in this country who think that way — 99% of the men I’ve worked with, do not view women as equals and these are the masses. They pass sexist comments, but don’t even know that they’re being sexist. I still remember, one of my colleagues had a scene with a lot of dialogues directed at her husband…who basically had to keep shut and listen. After the shot, he looked at the director and said, ‘how much she talks — she’s going on and on, let me say something’ to which the director laughed and said, ‘ek chamaat maar de — chup ho jayegi!’ He thought he was being funny…but today’s joke becomes tomorrow’s reality. Women have been considered the weaker sex and I realise that the only way to change that is to start with me. Why is our beauty associated with how thick our hair is, how high our cheekbones are or how petite we are? For the longest time, I thought I was unattractive because I was overweight, but fuck that, I’ve finally fallen in love with myself and I’m not going to let the world’s idea of what’s ‘beautiful’ to let me think otherwise. A journalist actually once said, ‘I only got the role of Badho because of my size’ and I was like, ‘spent years in drama school, but that don’t count for shit, eh?’ You will always be ‘too fat’ or ‘too thin’ or ‘too loud’ or ‘too opinionated’ for the world, but you know what — we’re better off being ‘too much’ than being nothing at all. It’s high time the world starts accepting each other’s flaws…and that will only happen if you wear them proudly like armour. Own it — own it all!”
