Ananya Panday On Being Skinny-Shamed

Brut India

Ananya Panday experienced trolling and comments about her body even before she became an actress. She spoke to Bollywood Bubble about how she deals with it.

Transcript

00:00In school, I think, as I said, I was surrounded by a really solid group of friends and I had

00:15my girls, you know, hooked on to whenever I needed.

00:19And I also had like my parents and even the teachers in my school were really, really

00:22nice.

00:23So I wouldn't say that I was bullied or anything.

00:24There was obviously like some teasing in school, you know, if you liked a boy, then they tease

00:29you with them.

00:30Or because I was very thin as I still am in school, so they'd make fun of like my toothpick

00:34legs.

00:35Really?

00:36What did they say?

00:37Just like calling me chicken legs or toothpick legs or whatever, like stuff like that.

00:42And also I was very hairy in school.

00:44So they used to like, I used to have hair on my arms and all when I was young.

00:47So they used to make fun of that and all.

00:49So all those things.

00:50They used to call me hunchback because I used to have a slouch.

00:52But like, I feel like I always got through it because of my friends.

00:57I feel like that's where I derive my like positivity and my self-confidence from.

01:01But there used to be pictures of me with my parents because at that time I wasn't an actor.

01:05So, you know, I'd go out with my parents and stuff.

01:07And as I said, I was very thin.

01:09I didn't look, you know, people used to say I look like a boy.

01:13I'm like a flat screen.

01:15I look like all those kind of things.

01:17So I feel like at that time it did hurt because those are the years where you're forming your

01:21self-confidence and you know, you're like, you're learning to love yourself.

01:24And then when you feel like someone else is pulling you down, then it really just gets,

01:29then you start doubting yourself.

01:30You start doubting the way you look and everything.

01:33I think when you get bullied too much, you have a certain resistance to it and then it

01:37stops affecting you.

01:38Then you're like, it doesn't matter what anyone says.

01:41Did you reach that point anytime in life?

01:43I feel like I'm reaching that point.

01:45I feel like it's like an ongoing process.

01:48I can't say that it still doesn't hurt me because I feel like I am pretty thick skinned

01:53and I am pretty strong.

01:54Because as you said, when it's been happening from such a young age, then you kind of develop

01:57that thick skin.

01:58But I feel like still one day if you're not in the right frame of mind, if something happened

02:03at work and then on top of that you see something, then it can hurt you.

02:07Like if I say that it doesn't hurt me, I'd definitely be lying because there are days

02:11when I'm like, but why?

02:12You know, what did I do that's like so wrong that people, you know, get it?

02:16And I feel like when people attack your personality, that's like the worst thing that someone can

02:20do because that's purely you.

02:22It's like yourself, you know?

02:24So I feel like it does hurt when people say that, oh, her voice is so irritating, oh,

02:28why is she talking like this?

02:29And there's a thousand people, you know, doing my mimicry and all and all of that stuff.

02:33But I feel like you just have to develop a thick skin and just be as positive as you

02:42can be, as kind as you can be and make sure you don't let someone feel that way is what

02:46I feel like you can do.

02:47You can't go and control other people's lives or their opinions and all of that stuff.

02:51But you have to try to be that better person, the bigger person in the situation.

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