‘I have a saggy bum, cellulite’

Sonam Kapoor reveals stories actresses never tell — of saggy skin, facial hair and the misery of being overweight

By Chandna Arora

‘Oh my God! Who says that?’ was the refrain that ran like wildfire through a very swish Delhi audience on Sunday. Sonam Kapoor had just finished half-an-hour of a jaw dropping, candid conversation about her journey from fat to fit, which she started almost teary-eyed. Sonam, among the thinnest people in the room that day, narrated how she got there, working her way through adolescent obesity, starvation and a depressing lack of self-confidence, to reach a healthy and sustainable figure. And for the record, she’s probably not wearing a bikini in her next — she says she has too much saggy skin from losing so much weight! Excerpts:

I HAD HAIR ON MY FACE
I’ve battled my weight since I was 12. My parents took to us to New York once for a holiday, and there I’d buy fruit loops from a 24x7 shop and sit down with my books. I never played, I wasn’t that kind of kid — I just read. I ate chocolates like peanuts. I was 86 kg till I was 19.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali (the director of her debut film Saawariya) told me, ‘You have a beautiful face but neck down, you’re like an Ajanta-Ellora painting.’ He was sweet enough to wait for me, but he said, ‘You have to wear a backless choli, you can’t have rolls of fat showing through.’ I had all the health problems that come with being overweight — I was diabetic, I had to take insulin tablets. I had hair on my face and I blamed my dad for it! My mom told me, ‘You don’t have hair anywhere else. You’ve done it to yourself.’

At 18, I was seeing someone very loving. He told me then, ‘I love you the way you are, but you need to lose weight!’ I took two years to lose it all. I did yoga, I followed starvation diets and that’s why I have bad acidity — and at this age. I can’t wear bikinis because I have loose skin from losing so much weight!

DAD NAMED ME LATINA PAPITA
Like fat people are called Tuntun, I was called ‘Latina papita’, and my dad started calling me that! I told him, ‘Come on, I’m your daughter!’ It was because all my weight went to my bum, and he said you look like those girls in the Bronx who walk around wearing tight jeans.

INDIAN JUNK FOOD IS MY SIN
Once, one of my friends had to remind me during a film that I’d eaten 20 samosas. You don’t notice, what you eat during a film — that’s why they have popcorn, which is healthy. Indian junk food is my sin, even though I pretend to like Japanese.

A FIT FAMILY IS IRRITATING!
My mom owned gyms — would you believe it? My dad is known for his fitness. Having a fit family is very irritating. My sister eats everything and doesn’t gain weight; my brother is an ectomorph (people with a high metabolism who find it hard to gain weight).

MY MOTIVATION: CLOTHES
My motivation to lose weight was clothes. I look at Kate Moss and I think, ‘I want to be a waif’. But I didn’t throw my old clothes after I lost weight, because I never know when I’m going to have to wear them again! Also, some of them are just too expensive to throw away (laughs). I work a lot with Anamika (Khanna, designer) and she has a separate section to just keep altering my clothes all the time.

THE PRESSURE KEEPS ME ON TRACK
I look at myself in the papers every day. I look at my competition — most of them are models, one is a badminton player, another is so skinny that everyone thinks she has a problem. She actually doesn’t — I know her, I’ve seen her eat, but she’s so skinny people think she does. It’s the pressure. I’ve landed up in hospital because of bad eating habits, but if I have to look good on magazine covers and in films, I have to be thin. Do I pray for thinness? No, my mother is quite religious, but I’m very superficial. I’m very clear — I need to fit into those shorts because I need to look hotter than her!

I refuse to wear a bikini. I have a saggy bum, I have cellulite, I said in an interview recently that my t*ts and a*s are not very nice so... I recently fit into a size 2 dress, which is great because I was size 16 once.

In Aisha, there were Lisa Haydon and Ira Dubey, and there was a scene with all of us wearing swimsuits. So Lisa and Ira wore swimsuits, and I had to wear boyfriend jeans over mine, in the Rishikesh heat!

Source: Bombay Times