Aishwarya Rai Criticized For Baby Weight Gain

Aishwarya Rai is known as one of the most beautiful women in the world. She is a successful Bollywood actress who found international fame because of her stunning appearance. However, her post-baby body has fans in India criticizing Aishwarya.

The 38-years-old actress gave birth to her first daughter in November of last year. Like many other moms, she gained weight. But, even with her celebrity status, Rai has said that she is in no hurry to drop the pounds. She simply wants to “enjoy motherhood.”

Indian actress Aishwarya Rai is slammed for gaining too much baby weight.

The criticism of Rai’s post-pregnancy figure has been fierce . Showbusiness columnist Shobhaa Dé said:

Aishwarya is like a goddess. She is held up as the ideal of beauty and so there is an expectation on her to look perfect at all times.”

The image that sparked the storm in India showed Rai in the back of a car on her way to a party being thrown for the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, where Ban is believed to have asked her to be the global face of the UN’s girl child campaign. The Indian media, though, was less interested in the job offer than the fact that Rai looked like a 38-year-old woman who had recently given birth.

The criticism has started a debate about Bollywood’s attitude towards women and motherhood. Cinema professor Shohini Ghosh says:

There is a glorification of motherhood in India and Indian cinema. But people are confused because they don’t know whether to glorify Aishwarya in her new motherhood or lament that she is not looking like a runway model.”

India has long grappled with the question of what beauty means, but in an age of global media Indians are familiar with western celebrities and how quickly some of them appear to regain their pre-baby bodies.

Dé went on:

The role models being held up are Angelina Jolie and Victoria Beckham. But our body frames are different – we have wider hips and curves – so this whole business of looking desperately skinny two weeks after giving birth is a western import.”

VB? Geez, would they also like her to be a deluded, usmiling, self promoting egotist like VB or remain the beautiful, smiling, talented ambassador for her country who happens to be taking time to lose her baby weight healthily? And without obsessive exercise and extreme surgery. Grow up, people.

I think that Indian audiences are not willing to accept as a screen heroine a woman known to be married and a mother… How unfair!

Dé commented:

It could be a turning point in making us stop and review the absurd expectations we have of our female celebrities.”

And Desai said:

The timing is right for us to start learning to accept women with a few more curves and appreciate that gorgeous women do age. But the question is would Aishwarya want to age gracefully in front of us and will we let her?”

Rai, who married Abhishek Bachchan, the son of India’s most loved film star Amitabh Bachnan in 2007, tipped for her 10th appearance at Cannes next week, furious speculation is mounting as to how she will look. Her appearance at Cannes could be an important cultural moment.

In pics above: Aishwarya Rai at the Oscars last February when she was in the very early stages of her pregnancy, and at last year’s Cannes Festival in May, six months before she gave birth to her daughter.

She has had a baby for goodness sake – leave her alone! I’m sure the baby is more important to her than losing weight at present. She’ll lose weight eventually… The idea of how a mother should look soon after birth does not impress me…

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