Was told to maintain a feminine appearance: Tamannaah Bhatia

Tamannaah Bhatia, who was recently seen in Netflix’s ‘Lust Stories 2’, was told to maintain a feminine appearance when she entered the film industry 18 years ago. She recently recalled how it was tough for her to learn to walk ‘like a girl’ because people mocked her for walking ‘like a bhai.’ However, she also shared that trying to fit into the stereotypical definition of being feminine was physically exhausting.

Bhatia, in a conversation with Barkha Dutt on ‘Mojo Story’, said, “I had one producer who told me that whether you’re walking, fighting, dancing or expressing anger, you should always look feminine. This was literally the brief given to me when I was working on a film. The funny part was I had to learn how to walk like a girl based on whatever definition was meant for that in the movie.”

“That was like the first part of my training. They were like, ‘You walk like a man. Try to walk like a girl’. I was like, ‘Okay, now you’ll have to train me for that’. Because in my school, I was a dada. I would fight for samosas. I was ‘gundi’. But I was always very clear that I had to become an actress and I had to dance in the snow wearing a chiffon saree. This was a strong goal in my life.”

However, it wasn’t easy for the actor to adopt the ‘feminine’ mannerisms: “It was physically exhausting, even just keeping your back arched. I’d have to be aware of my shoulders all the time. These things impacted me early on. Growing up and being an actor, I started cutting out the noise that people kept bringing in. I felt that I started becoming my own when I cut off that noise and started to listen to what I think is feminine. It has to be your perspective, not everyone else’s.”