No matter how you look, there will always be someone ready to judge you, especially if you’re a celebrity. And among celebrities too, women often have it worse, as is unfortunately the norm. Actor Vaani Kapoor, too, is no stranger to body shaming, and she recently recalled an incident from the beginning of her career when she lost a project because the director felt she wasn‘t fair-skinned enough. Shockingly, his words were that she “wasn’t milky white”, highlighting the industry’s blatant colourist tendencies.
Opening up about show business’ obsession with fair skin, Vaani shared how she was dropped from the film simply because she didn’t fit that mould. “I haven’t been told directly, but information reaches via other people. A filmmaker had once said that I wasn’t fair enough to land a role. He said that I wasn’t ‘milky white’. I told myself that it is what it is. If that’s a requirement, I don’t want to be a part of his projects. The feelings are completely mutual there. He can find his ‘milky white beauty’ or his ‘fair and lovely’ woman. I know that I can find a better filmmaker for myself. This happened ages ago. And that filmmaker wasn’t from Mumbai,” she shared during a chat with News18.
An outsider with no prior connections to the film industry, Vaani Kapoor made her acting debut in the Sushant Singh Rajput and Parineeti Chopra-starrer Shuddh Desi Romance (2013). Although she made a strong impression with her very first film, Vaani continued to face body shaming in the years that followed.
“What I hear a lot sometimes is that I’m too skinny and that I should put on some weight because people like women with ‘fuller bodies’. But I like me! I don’t want to change anything about myself. I’m fit and healthy. I usually don’t get bothered by these things. Sometimes, you don’t know if such comments are coming from a place of concern or like a gold advice. But I think I’m pretty okay and I like who I am,” she added.
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After appearing in movies like Aaha Kalyanam (2014), Befikre (2016), War (2019), Bell Bottom (2021), Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021), Khel Khel Mein (2024) and Raid 2 (2025), she is now gearing up for her streaming series debut with the Netflix thriller Mandala Murders, which begins streaming on July 25.
