Beauty is as Beauty Does
In an interview with Film Companion for Begum Jaan (2017), Balan described herself as a tigress on a prowl driven by an insatiable hunger for more. Since her debut in Parineeta (2005), she has consistently portrayed characters who lead the film and when she appeared in The Dirty Picture (2011) as the Silk Smitha-inspired Reshma, the fact that she was a larger woman and that she was revelling in projecting a lusty persona felt like a powerful swipe at the film industry’s sexism and narrow-minded take on beauty.
Balan’s roles, from the assertive Avni in Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007) to the scheming Krishna in Ishqiya (2010) and the resolute Sabrina in No One Killed Jessica (2011), have been characterised by substance and complexity. They’ve resonated with the audience because of the compelling narratives they tell and the interiority that Balan brought to these roles. It also helped that Balan ensured these looked credibly real — not plain, not frumpy, but beautiful with real bodies, rather than sculpted, artifice-rich perfection.
Balan’s dedication to bringing characters with substance to screen has played a key part in pushing the Hindi film industry to write better roles for women. While it’s true that we have a long way to go when it comes to writing women for the screen, it’s equally true that we’ve come a long way from the stereotype-ridden, inherently sexist flatness that underscored Hindi film writing in the past, particularly in the Eighties and Nineties. Yet, when it comes to how the on-screen women looks, the demands have become arguably more rigid over time.
The industry underwent a significant shift with the entry of Zeenat Aman in 1971 who brought forth a “modern” and “Western” body type, introducing fitness as something that lent sex appeal and a broader theme of modernisation. The exercise routines of actresses would become a favourite subject for women’s magazines. A watershed moment in our adoration of thinness came with Tashan (2008), when Kareena Kapoor Khan’s figure ushered in the size-zero craze. The next shift came with Katrina Kaif, and her sculpted ab lines. Choreographer and director Farah Khan is said to have put Kaif on a stringent diet before shooting the song, “Sheila Ki Jawani” (Tees Maar Khan, 2010) and the popularity of that song paved the way for “Chikni Chameli” (Agneepath, 2012) and “Kamli” (Dhoom 3, 2013). Kaif eventually debuted her washboard abs in “Kaala Chashma” (Baar Baar Dekho, 2016). In addition to being unachievable for most mortals, these new benchmarks of fitness arguably shifted the focus away from the actresses’ acting performances.