Sarah Jane Dias was recently seen in ZEE5’s rom-com Never Kiss Your Best Friend 2, and has starred in films like Kyaa Super Kool Hain Hum, Happy New Year, and O Teri, among others. The actress was crowned Miss India in the year 2007. However, that didn’t stop people from making judgments about her. She had earlier spoken about facing body image issues and how she was called out for being too thin and too fat at two different points in her life. In a conversation with News18.com, the actress, who has been open about body positivity and self-care, talked about how she was being rejected for roles in films because of being overweight.
In her TED Talk, Sarah had talked about how she was rejected for being thin and then there were times people didn’t cast her for being too fat. The Game actress shared that what helped her cope with all these troubles is one mantra. She said, “I think self-acceptance and just understanding that ‘this is what I look like and this is what I believe in,’ helps. Also, you do what you think is necessary to look your best.”
Sharing about the practises that helped her tackle the rejections and body image issues she said, “I prayed, meditated and practised yoga. I worked out. I ate healthily and eventually just realised that I love myself and I will only put myself in positions that don’t make me feel uncomfortable. So, I think that’s how I got out of it but it’s a lot of work.”
Speaking about how she doesn’t like defining someone by their size, the Happy New Year actress stated that she thinks speaking about body image is essential not only for women but for men too. Sarah also shared that the word “body image” is misused these days. Sarah asserted, “Firstly, I feel like the word body image is just thrown around these days and is used and misused. I think that it’s first important for everybody to define what their version of comfortable body image is — who do you think you look like — and how are you comfortable. Is that a plus is that a plus-size is that a regular size…”
“One point is that I don’t even like saying plus size because I mean it’s just a size. Either you are a 12 or 10 or 9 or 14 like there’s no such thing as a plus but whatever. That’s my opinion. I just think that body image is something that needs to be discussed especially for men. Nobody talks about body image issues that men have, which is a huge issue,” she adds.
Sarah asserted, “I just think that body image is something that needs to be spoken about more. Now what has happened is, plus size bahut cool ho gaya hai. When I was slim, people used to tell me that I’m very thin, and when I was a bit on the heavier side, they used to say that you are very fat. Now, plus size is cool, and I am thin… (laughs) … So this has happened, then what should I do? How and where would I get work from?”
Sharing her idea of body positivity, the 39-year-old actress said that one should be comfortable in their own skin, colour and size. Sarah said, “The whole idea is, why do you want to be one thing or the other? Just be what you want to be. God made everybody with different shapes and sizes. Everybody needs to be equally represented and that’s my thing. If you are equally representing, that means you are accepting body image. Your personal body image needs to be what you are comfortable with, not what a magazine is telling you. Because the magazines are telling you that plus size is cool that does not mean that you eat jalebis and become fat. The important thing is to eat healthy.”
“My concern about body image is that it actually matters if you are healthy on the inside. Are your thoughts healthy? Is your body healthy, are you eating healthy? To me, that’s the conversation that is more important than what the image is. And yes, there needs to be a conversation about body acceptance. Everyone’s body should be accepted the way it is 100%. But what about body image for somebody who has polio, or somebody who has lost an arm or a leg, what about them? If a conversation about body image is going on, then we should count in everybody,” concludes the actress.
