Actor Raveena Tandon recalled how merciless the media landscape used to be in the 90s and early 2000s, when women actors were targeted in print. She said that she had several unflattering stories written about her, based on unverified comments made by unnamed ‘sources’. She said that unlike today, when she can offer rebuttals on social media, she was helpless back in the day, as reputed journalists commented about her body and speculated about her mental wellbeing.
In an interview with Barkha Dutt for Mojo Story, Raveena recalled standing up for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan when she was body-shamed in the press following the birth of her daughter Aaradhya. She also clarified that she stepped out of the limelight after giving birth herself, because she didn’t think that she looked her best and didn’t want to rush getting back in shape.
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Asked if she regrets missing out on several years, she said, “No, I don’t. I didn’t want to be camera-friendly at that time. It’s too much pressure. Those were the days where they’d body shame you. Do you remember how they got after Aishwarya when she didn’t lose her weight after the baby? I didn’t want that to happen to me, and that’s why I was completely out of the public eye. Hello, I want to nurse my children for as long as I can. I’m not thinking of going on a diet right now, I don’t want to work out.”
Raveena continued, “I remember I had written an open letter to the press during Aishwarya’s time. I stood by her. She was body-shamed for a very long time about not losing weight. I said, ‘It’s her decision, it’s her life, it’s her baby. It’s her decision when she wants to get back to work. So, let her be, let her take this break’. Because that’s exactly what I did. I wanted to eat everything under the sun, after being disciplined for all those years, living on lo-cal snacks and makhanas. I wanted to go crazy, and I did.”
Raveena said that she doesn’t see her hiatus as a ‘sacrifice’, because she wanted to ‘take it easy’ and enjoy her pregnancy. “I had become like a cow, and I let it happen,” she said. Raveena has four children – two adopted daughters, and another daughter and a son with her husband Anil Thadani.
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