Bipasha Basu Completes 20 Years In Bollywood, Talks About All The Prejudices She’s Faced Over The Years

We all know that Bollywood is an unforgiving place. I mean, way too many actors have spoken about their struggles on many different occasions. It gets even more difficult for those who are outsiders. Especially if you’re an outsider that doesn’t completely match the standard criteria. Exactly how bad it is, we might never know. But sometimes we can get a few revelations and estimate a fair idea. Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu recently completed two decades in the film industry. And on that occasion, she spilled the beans on every prejudice she had to fight in the industry. Get ready for the list folks!

Bipasha Basu has been around in the industry for quite a while now. Looking back at her career, she recalled during a recent interview how there was this unspoken rule book that she was given when she started acting in movies. And now, two decades later, she is happy and glad that she didn’t follow the rule book and made her own path.

Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Bipasha recalled that while shooting for her debut film Ajnabee, she met her first hairstylist who told her that there were rules to being a heroine which she found funny at the time. Back then, actresses were supposed to hide their true selves from the public eye but that was not what she was like. She chose to do things differently.

One of the incidents that the 42-year-old actress narrates exposes some of the unsaid rules of being a Bollywood actress. Bipasha Basu said, “I remember I was having iced tea in a glass while shooting Ajnabee in Switzerland. My hairstylist came and told me, ‘Everyone is thinking that you are drinking whiskey’. She asked me to drink it in a cup to avoid this perception. Then this other time, I was wearing a backless blouse, and she told me, ‘Actresses don’t dress up like this and that I’m only supposed to wear it on-screen.” She even reveals that she has heard big actresses commenting on other girls wearing short clothes when they would be the ones wearing those on screen. And with that, she highlights the double standards of the Bollywood industry.

Bipasha also talked about a bunch of tags that were attached to her. From being called ‘bohemian’ for her ‘hatke’ choices to the tag of ‘sexy’ which means different things to her now than it did back then.

Also Read: Bipasha Basu Drops Truth Bombs On Colourism, Body shaming And Stereotypes. We Love Her Candid Nature

Bipasha Basu, who is now married to the actor Karan Singh Grover, reveals that there was a time when she was asked not to talk about her boyfriend. They asked her not to share any personal information in interviews and she never understood why not. 

 

 

But the prejudices of the film industry don’t end with clothes. There were times when the actress faced comments regarding her skin colour as well. Bipasha Basu remembered one such incident and said, “I used to love sunbathing all the time, even though I’m dusky. But I was told, ‘You’ve to walk with an umbrella all the time’. I understand now why umbrellas are required. Back then, in my me-time, I was told that you shouldn’t tan because you’re already dusky. But none of these things really stopped me.” She further added, “These are some rules that I was told to follow right from my first film, which I never followed.”

Also Read: Bipasha Basu Talks About Her Skin Colour Being The First Thing Everyone Noticed. Why Do We Describe People By Their Colour?

And she is so much better for it! We all knew about the double standards and the hypocrisy that exists in Bollywood. And honestly, it is disturbing. I mean setting up beauty standards, telling a person what she can and what she can’t share with the media, commenting on their skin colour, gone are the days when this was acceptable and actresses took it lying down. And I’m so glad that Bipasha Basu turned a deaf ear to these rules and chose to be her own person.

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