Anjali Anand hits back at a social media influencer

A social media influencer, Soumya Dubey, shared a clip from SCREEN’s interview where Anjali said, “If someone calls me fat, I call them ugly because they are that inside-out and they are showing me that.” Reacting to this statement, Soumya said in her video, “Girl, what the hell are you talking about? I watched Dhamaal 4. I went for nostalgia, but what did I end up getting? I came out so disappointed. Every scene you were in, there were fat jokes all over; you were entering, there were elephant sounds in the background, and all the dialogue around you in the movie was fat-shaming jokes.”

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She further said in the video, “What are you even talking about? Did you call the director or the cast ugly? I am so sorry, you cannot choose scripts like this and end up talking like this on interviews. Seeing you tolerate people cracking such jokes, though it is fiction and humor, not at the cost of how you look. I really thought of you as an inspiration, you have a plus-size brand, you promote body positivity, and you end up doing a film where in every scene you are in, they crack jokes about how you look, and how fat you are.”

Reacting to Soumya’s video, Anjali Anand commented and wrote, “Yes, my love. Because society still is ugly. Go see the comments on my page, and you’ll get it. Nobody is going to write me a part until I put myself out there and show what I can do with my talent, so yes, I’m biting a bitter pill to run my house and put food on my table, and taking up projects that I’m getting. I do not have an option to choose what I want to do and what not. There aren’t directors lining up for me to give me parts.”

Anjali further wrote, “My first project- UNTAG, then Dhhai Kilo Prem, then Rocky Rani, and then this. If they want to cast a fat girl, honey, I’ll be the best damn fat girl they’ve ever seen because I’m here for the long run. I have to wait it out until the whole climate changes. It’s a revolution, and it will take time, and I have the balls to wait it out until then. A serial killer playing a part in a film does not mean he supports killing people. Don’t ridicule me for my size. See what I can do with my talent and where I have reached with it. Abhi bahot kuch karna baaki hai. Jai Mata Di let’s rock.”

Anjali Anand on facing judgments on her body

Earlier, in an interview with SCREEN, Anjali Anand clarified how she reacted to the fat-shaming jokes in the film. She had said, “People often say that to me, that how can you do a film like this, when you are so vocal and stand against people making fun of somebody. But this is the society, people are still making fun of me after I have proven myself. People are still trolling me online. They are commenting, ‘kis bhains ko le liye’, ‘Riteish ke kya din aa gaye the ki isko iss heroine ke saath kaam karna pad raha hai’, ‘industry ke kya din aa gaye, heroine nahi bachi hai kya’, these are the comments. Until society changes, scripts won’t change.”

“And I don’t like that hypocrisy, where people say, ‘Oh, there are so many fat jokes’, I am so sure these people must have called someone fat moments before this. I will make sure that I am a part of the biggest films so that I become big enough for people to write different roles for me, and I break the barrier of stories making fat jokes. But there is a long way to go for that. It’s a vicious circle; if I don’t get a film, people will not know I exist. And these are the kind of films I am getting, because this is my reality,” Anjali added.