This is something that has been bothering me for quite some time. Vidya Balan gets an awful lot of negative press for her alleged chunkiness. I would like to refute that allegation and instead lay the blame firmly at the feet of those people in charge of her styling - or who have let her style herself, if that is the case.

The recent craze for ultra-thin “bikini” bodies with stars like Kareena Kapoor and not quite stars like Minissha Lamba and Amisha Patel all ready to starve themselves to look like the skeletal Hollywood elite is rather worrying. I understand that actresses who play heroines need to be attractive. Some are more traditionally beautiful - like Bipasha Basu - and others get by on more charisma that beauty - like Kajal. Attractiveness is a combination of both good looks and charisma. The danger comes in associating attractiveness with being thin.

We can control a lot of things about ourselves but weight is not one of them. Each of us has a certain weight range where our bodies are most comfortable. Sure, I could weigh 115 pounds but I would have to starve myself to do it. Is it fair to ask actresses to starve themselves in order to play host to the viewing audience’s skinny fetish? Why do our heroines need to have bikini bodies unless they are going to be wearing bikinis and other revealing clothes? Do we want our heroines wearing revealing outfits? I, for one, would love to see a return of more traditional and modest outfits on heroines. Sure, bring out the bikini for the item number, but why not let one of those former models wear it?

There’s this divide between former model/actresses who can wear bikinis but have trouble emoting (*cough* Deepika) and actresses who can act but do not look good in bikinis. And this brings me back to Vidya Balan. Maybe she’s just not cut out to be a heroine of popular film. She might be better served if she stuck to more artsy films like Parineeta. Or, she could hire somebody who will help her wear clothes that look good on her frame and build and not try to squeeze her into Katrina Kaif’s leftovers. One last thing - I think part of the problem in Kismet Konnection is that she was paired opposite Shahid Kapoor, who is really slender in build. Only Mary Kate and Ashley would look thin next to him.

Vidya, look to Rani Mukerji - who also gets hassled about her weight - for what to do.