Swara Bhasker recalls Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s ordeal with body shaming after giving birth to her daughter Aaradhya: ‘They didn’t spare her; so who the hell am I?’

Swara Bhasker has long been subjected to body shaming, which intensified after she gave birth to her daughter in September 2023. Reflecting on the scrutiny she has endured, Swara recently compared her experience to that of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who faced similar harsh criticism post-childbirth. She highlighted that if someone as celebrated for her beauty as Aishwarya could be subjected to such negativity, she, too, was bound to face it.

“There is a way in which women who are in the public eye, especially the glamour world, can never just be left alone. There’s always some scrutiny of what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, your life choices, how you’re going through it and so on,” Swara remarked during a recent interview with BBC News India.

Recalling Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s ordeal after giving birth to her daughter, Aaradhya, Swara stated, “I remember Aishwarya Rai being put through so many negative, damaging, and horrible discourses when she had her baby and when she had postpartum weight.

Really unflattering pictures of her were taken, seemingly deliberately, and published everywhere. I remember watching an interview and the grace with which she’d handled all that. A less gracious person would have been angry. The interviewer was talking about her not getting back into shape as soon as other people had, for example.”

Swara Bhasker shares pictures from her maternity photoshoot; thanks husband Fahad Ahmad for ‘being a reluctant yet sporting model’

Swara continued, “I remember her saying that, ‘I was just living my life with my baby… my real life.’ She answered it very beautifully. That resonated with me so much. I was like, she is the most beautiful woman in the world. She literally won that title. They didn’t spare her; so who the hell am I?”

Swara Bhasker married politician Fahad Ahmad in February 2023. As an interfaith couple, they wed under the Special Marriage Act, 1954. Their daughter, Raabiyaa, was born in September of the same year. Swara’s most recent film appearance was in Mimamsa (2022), directed by Gagan Puri.