[Assam] [assam] Aishwarya Rai's post-baby body forces India to confront its attitude to women

[bhuban.baruah]

The Guardian,UK (May 16, 2012)


Aishwarya Rai's post-baby body forces India to confront its attitude to 
women
The former Miss World is due to appear at the Cannes festival as a 
debate about her weight rages in her home country

Sarfraz Manzoor
The Guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 15 May 2012 17.00 BST

Aishwarya Rai in Bride and Prejudice (2004). Photograph: AP
Aishwarya Rai is no stranger to Cannes. The Bollywood actor and former 
Miss World has attended the film festival 10 times, but her appearance 
on the red carpet next week is set to be her most talked about. The 
cause of a controversy raging in India lies not with her latest film – 
Rai is there to promote a  cosmetic brand rather than a new movie – but 
instead, bewilderingly, with recent photographs which suggest that, six 
months after giving birth to a baby girl, Rai has yet to regain her 
pre-pregnancy figure.

Many in India are asking whether the woman routinely referred to as the 
most beautiful in the world, and who occupies a place in Indian popular 
culture akin to Kate Middleton or Victoria Beckham, has an obligation 
to her fans to lose weight.

Born on 1 November 1973 in Mangalore, Karnataka, in the south of India, 
Rai was the second child of a merchant navy officer. Her modelling 
career began while she was still at school; at 18 she won the Ford 
supermodel contest, which led to her being cast in a television 
advertisement for Pepsi. In the 1993 commercial – which also featured 
future Bollywood heart throb Aamir Khan – Rai appeared for only three 
seconds but her pouting cameo brought her national fame. The following 
year she won Miss World. "That contest is seen as a bit of a joke in 
the west but Rai winning really mattered to India," said Rachel Dwyer, 
professor of Indian cinema at the University of London.

Rai then made the predictable move into acting, but with a surprising 
debut: Iruvar was a Tamil political thriller rather than a Bollywood 
blockbuster. She went on to star in more mainstream films such as 
Jeans, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and, most notably, Devdas, which brought 
her global attention. Unlike heroines from the 70s and 80s who were 
often healthily curvy, Rai's popularity rested on a body that was 
supermodel lean.

"Most of the films she has appeared in – with a few exceptions – have 
been critically trashed," said film critic Mayank Shekhar. "Her prime 
talent – if not her only one – is that the west perceives hers to be 
the most beautiful face to have come out of India."

"She is an icon because of her extreme beauty," said novelist Kishwar 
Desai, "and also because she has broken through to the international 
market and that means a lot to Indians."

Julia Roberts, in a quote endlessly recycled but never substantiated, 
is reported to have described Rai as the most beautiful woman in the 
world and it was the interest from the United States – where Rai was 
invited to appear on both The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Late Show with 
David Letterman – and from Britain – where she starred in Bride and 
Prejudice – that made her Bollywood's biggest star. In 2003 she was 
invited to join the Cannes jury alongside Steven Soderbergh and Meg 
Ryan. The decision, critics suggested, was motivated more by marketing 
than qualification – a suspicion not entirely laid to rest by Rai's 
comment on arriving at Cannes: "I am here to learn."

Shekhar said: "One has to make a distinction between her career as a 
public performer and as a film actress. Her career as a public 
performer is more successful than her film work."

This public role included not only acting but also brand endorsements, 
charitable work and a high-profile marriage. Rai is said to earn more 
than £10m annually for endorsing such brands as Longines, Lux and 
L'Oréal – for whom she is appearing in Cannes. Alongside the commercial 
endorsements, she also lends her fame to social causes. She has 
committed to donating her green eyes to blindness charity Eye-Bank 
after her death. Last month it was announced that a school named after 
her is being built for girls in a remote village in Uttar Pradesh.

She also stays in the headlines because of her eventful love life. 
Before her marriage she was in a relationship with actor Salman Khan, 
which ended acrimoniously with Rai releasing a press statement saying: 
"I have endured his alcoholism and misbehaviour, and I have been at the 
receiving end of his abuses – verbal, physical and emotional, 
infidelity and indignity." Khan denied the allegations.

In 2007 she married another actor, Abhishek Bachchan, the son of 
Amitabh Bachchan, India's most loved film star. Human rights groups 
criticised Rai for promoting a Hindu tradition associated with the 
caste system by 'marrying' a tree ahead of the wedding – apparently to 
overcome astrological differences with her fiance. On the wedding day 
300 policemen were stationed around their Mumbai home and one young 
woman, who claimed she was Bachchan Jr's former girlfriend, slit her 
wrists on the street outside and required 40 stitches. The wedding 
sealed Rai's admission into the Bachchan dynasty. "She had it all," 
said Desai. "Picture-perfect looks, winning Miss World and then 
marrying the most eligible bachelor in India by marrying into one of 
this country's most respected families: it is a fairytale life."

The criticism of Rai's post-pregnancy figure has been fierce . 
"Aishwarya is like a goddess," said Showbusiness columnist Shobhaa Dé. 
"She is held up as the ideal of beauty and so there is an expectation 
on her to look perfect at all times."

The image that sparked the storm in India showed Rai in the back of a 
car on her way to a party being thrown for the UN secretary general, 
Ban Ki-moon, where Ban is believed to have asked her to be the global 
face of the UN's girl child campaign. The Indian media, though, was 
less interested in the job offer than the fact that Rai looked like a 
38-year-old woman who had recently given birth.

One website posted a video, complete with elephant sound effects, 
entitled "Aishwarya Rai's shocking weight gain", which has been seen 
more than 500,000 times. "She is a Bollywood actress and it is her duty 
to look good and fit," suggested one commenter. Another added: "She 
needs to learn from people like Victoria Beckham who are back to size 
zero weeks after their delivery."

The criticism has started a debate about Bollywood's attitude towards 
women and motherhood. "There is a glorification of motherhood in India 
and Indian cinema," said cinema professor Shohini Ghosh. "But people 
are confused because they don't know whether to glorify Aishwarya in 
her new motherhood or lament that she is not looking like a runway 
model."

India has long grappled with the question of what beauty means, but in 
an age of global media Indians are familiar with western celebrities 
and how quickly some of them appear to regain their pre-baby bodies. 
"The role models being held up are Angelina Jolie and Victoria 
Beckham," said Dé. "But our body frames are different – we have wider 
hips and curves – so this whole business of looking desperately skinny 
two weeks after giving birth is a western import."

The career trajectory of female Bollywood actors has been downwards 
after they married and had children. From 50s star Nargis to Rai's 
mother-in-law Jaya Bhaduri, who largely retired after marrying Amitabh 
Bachchan, the assumption was that Indian audiences were not willing to 
accept as a screen heroine a woman known to be married and a mother. 
But there are signs of progress: this month two other women – Madhuri 
Dixit Nene and Karisma Kapoor – are making film comebacks after having 
children.

Rai's appearance at Cannes could be an important cultural moment. "It 
could be a turning point in making us stop and review the absurd 
expectations we have of our female celebrities," said Dé.

"The timing is right for us to start learning to accept women with a 
few more curves and appreciate that gorgeous women do age," said Desai. 
"But the question is would Aishwarya want to age gracefully in front of 
us and will we let her?"

Potted profile

Born: 1 November 1973 in Mangalore, Karnataka

Career to date: model, Bollywood actor, humanitarian

High point: winning Miss World 1994, winning FilmFare best actress 
award twice, besting David Letterman on his US TV chat show

Low point: after ending her relationship with fellow actor Salman Khan 
she told the Bombay Times: "There were times when Salman got physical 
with me, luckily without leaving marks. And I would go to work as if 
nothing had happened."

What she says: "I always knew I would be successful. So there was no 
element of surprise."

What they say, allegedly: "The most beautiful woman in the world" 
(Julia Roberts)